By Scott M. Fulton, III, Betanews
At 2:22 pm Eastern Standard Time today, some eight days after a support thread was first launched by a Google Nexus One user who noticed his phone kept flipping back and forth between 3G and EDGE services, a fellow named Ravi whose job description in his Google profile is listed as "Google Employee, Doofus Maximus" wrote in to assure customers the company was working with its partners to investigate the issue. The problem may affect several hundred Nexus One phones, though evidently -- and thankfully -- not all of them.
"Hey Folks, this is your friendly neighborhood Google Guide here to clear some up some confusion around all these 3G shenanigans!" Ravi's post began. "We (by 'we' I mean Google, although HTC and T-Mobile are both getting reports as well) are getting reports from some users who are having problems maintaining a 3G data connection on their device. We're actively working with our partners to investigate these issues and identify what's going on. Most people don't seem to be running into this issue, but for those of you who are, we understand your concern and appreciate your patience."
The problem for many affected customers, at this point, is whether the 14-day grace period (which at an earlier point was 7-day) for returning phones for refunds, will still be honored if the solution to the problem takes six days more or longer to implement. Ravi went on to say that if the solution is a software fix, it will be implemented over the air automatically, but if it's a hardware problem, the Nexus One warranty would remain in effect.
That warranty promises a 12-month period in the US, and a 24-month period in the EU, for returning the phone for replacement. At 3:09 pm, Ravi returned to respond to these concerns: "With regard to returns, the return period is still in effect and I don't have any more information related to that right now, but I can assure you we'll figure out what's going on and get you a new device if it turns out to be hardware and send out a fix if it's software," he wrote. He then added, "Just keep posting feedback, I promise you guys we're here listening. I completely understand that these kinds of things can be frustrating, but we're doing what we can to keep you updated with what we know."
Nexus One customers have actually not been altogether helpless during this confusing early period. In fact, many are reporting having dealt directly with knowledgeable and even courteous support personnel from HTC, the phone's manufacturer; and in a few cases, the company is sending engineers to customers' homes to test for signal quality, and to see the troubled phones for themselves. Some commenters on T-Mobile's support forum have stated they surprisingly found themselves transferred to HTC personnel, but were pleased with the tone and substance of their response afterwards.
An HTC spokesperson has also been in contact with Betanews, although with not much new to add in recent days. When some customers reported their 3G problems mysteriously disappearing, we asked HTC whether the company is testing an over-the-air update in the field; the spokesperson told us that no such news of trials has yet been confirmed.
As of now, the pattern that appears to restrict the flip-flop problem to a specific firmware version (32.19.00.16U_4.02.02.41) is still holding; no other online reports have been spotted of any other firmware version with similar problems.
