How to improve iPhone AT&T reception in California? Turn off 3G

About 10 days back, I moved to California with a lot of new dreams. This place is just awesome :D. But I gotta admit, I realized that the signal reception of AT&T is pretty bad in California, especially in crowded cities. I could never receive phone calls or even missed calls. I had to rely on voice mails or google voice number to get connected.

This forced me to find ways to seek better signal reception and voila I found it. Most Base Stations are installed with 3G equipment to support the enormous about of traffic on their AT&T network. But, there might be other 2G/2.5G base stations near your house.

The simple solution is to turn off 3G if you're at home. One can use the Wi-fi as an alternative to access emails. This is how you do it.

Step 1 : Home > Settings > General > Network > Turn off "Enable 3G".
Step 2 : If it helps, turn off Cellular Data, but it is not needed.

If the iPhone fails to pick a new base station, turn off and on the Airplane mode to find new base stations.  You'll find the Airplane mode under Settings.

Enjoy!