Bluetooth: Another Wi-Fi killer for the iPhone?

More coverage of the ongoing Wi-Fi struggles of iPhone 3.0 users: In a discussion comment, Liam noted that he got full bars but no Internet using his iPhone 3GS until he turned off Bluetooth. After reading that, I wondered if Bluetooth is another suspect in the widening catalog of speed and signal problems reported with the iPhone 3GS and the iPhone 3G / iPod touch combination.

I ran the DSLReport speed test on my iPhone 3GS and found that with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth both enabled, latency increased a bit, and download speed decreased by over a third when compared to running the test with Bluetooth disabled. Upload speed didn't seem to be affected.

A possible reason was proposed by Doug Hogg of Toy Kite Software, creators of the Bluetooth-enabled two person game iSamurai: Real Life Sword Fight. Doug discovered problems in playing the game after updating to iPhone 3.0 software, but found that turning off either Bluetooth or Wi-Fi solved everything. It seems that both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi share the same antenna, so when Bluetooth was made active in the 3.0 software, conflicts arose.

On the Toy Kite Software site, Doug was a bit more specific. The iPhone 3.0 software brought with it a service discovery process that switches between looking for another device on Wi-Fi and Bluetooth using the single antenna. While searching, problems can occur with already established connections that can cause lags and loss of data packets sent between devices. Apple is working with Toy Kite Software to correct all this, but I wonder how much speed and even signal strength loss can be regained by turning off Bluetooth when it's not being used. In my case the difference was substantial.

It's also interesting to note that the iPhone 3GS uses a combination Wi-Fi / Bluetooth Broadcom chip that handles 802.11a/b/g as well as Bluetooth 2.1. Previously separate Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chips were used.

If you are having any speed or signal problems, try turning off Bluetooth and see what happens. I don't think that this will solve everything, but until Apple gets its act together on fixing all of this, what we're left with is a rag-tag assortment of tricks that may or may not help.

Let us know if this one works for you.

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Source: http://toykite.com/content/bluetoothwifi-issues-and-status-3…

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Bluetooth iPhone iPod touch

More coverage of the ongoing Wi-Fi struggles of iPhone 3.0 users: In a discussion comment, Liam noted that he got full bars but no Internet...

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Doug Roberts

I'm having a problem with my new iPhone3GS paired with my BMW 330i (2006). My old iPhone 3G bluetooth worked perfectly in the car, but the 3GS has "stuttering" problems on 95% on calls. The calls usually start fine, but then after about 30 seconds, the audio on both sides of the call starts stuttering or skipping. It continues to get worse until the audio is unintelligible. If I switch the iPhone off bluetooth, then the audio is fine. Once I switch back to bluetooth, the problem repeats the same pattern and within a minute has the audio problem again.

I've tried turning off the wireless after reading through the posts here and the problem still occurs. Called Apple support and got no where, of course.

The bluetooth on the iPhone works fine with my motorola headset and other bluetooth devices as well as do other phones in my car, so it seems to be the combination of the BMW bluetooth and the iPhone 3GS.

Any suggestions or ideas would be appreciated. I guess I could return the phone and try a different handset to see if I get any different results, but I'm guessing it's not the particular phone.

Thanks,

Doug

March 01 2010 at 7:04 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Gabe

It's exactly the reason we experienced lag in our application, too.
WeBe Bluetooth Mouse works over Bluetooth and WiFi/AdHoc. If both are activated (Bluetooth and WiFi), the app responds very slow when using it over WiFi, but still fast over Bluetooth (both activated). If you disable Bluetooth and try it again over WiFi, it works like a charm.

We discovered this a few days ago ourselves and I encountered this thread when I was looking for a comfortable solution...

Cheers

Gabe

February 03 2010 at 9:40 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

ericbelt

While using the SiriusXM iPhone application or Pandora over wifi and also using a stereo bluetooth headset, buffering of the stream occurs more often than playing music. The app works fine over wifi without the headset. The headset works fine with iTunes on the iPhone and on my MacBook. Sounds like the same issue. Very disappointing..I bought internet streaming for Sirius hoping to use my new BT headset with iPhone at work. Guess I'll cancel :(

July 21 2009 at 10:08 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

macuser

I tested this on my iPod Touch 2G and is definitely effects latency.

July 16 2009 at 12:57 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Pasnbyu

Any reports of this issue affecting other devises using the same wifi router (dlink 801.11.g)? Ever since I got my 3GS opening weekend, my Dell laptop, 1st gen iPhone (2.2 OS), iPod touch (2.2 OS), and new Macbook Pro have 25-50% wifi "lockup" - full wifi bars, but no Internet connection. This is only resolved by turning wifi off / on for each affected devise (problem does not affect all connected devises at the same time). The good news for me is that when wifi does work, it works as fast as expected - even while using Bluetooth.

July 16 2009 at 12:23 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Hschechtman

Not true. Not true for me. Using Speedtest download& upload were very close. Surprisingly latency improved with BT on so ho figure.

IPhone 32gig 3gs

July 16 2009 at 11:42 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

mxtrader

Well... I disconnected the WiFi from my wife's iPhone (3G) and Bluetooth started working.

That's what I call a bogus engineering.

Thanks for the tip, anyway

July 16 2009 at 10:34 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

justin

While using certain apps, like AirSharing Pro, the WiFi is unusable while being only 5 feet from the WAP.

When BlueTooth is disabled, it works fine. However, when it's on, all bets are off. You can copy files up or down and the signal strength drops out or falls to one bar (again while 5 feet from the WAP).

July 16 2009 at 10:32 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Jonathan Bruck

I've experienced the WiFi wackiness without running bluetooth, so I think theres something else that is the culprit.

July 16 2009 at 10:08 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to Jonathan Bruck's comment

David Winograd

I don't think that any one thing is the culprit. It seems that it's a variety of things that can be done in a variety of ways under a variety of conditions.

Way too many variables.

July 16 2009 at 3:25 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Digaos

So this new Broadcom chip can also handle 802.11a (5Ghz) but it's not part of the iPhone specs.

Does Apple disable it?

July 16 2009 at 9:43 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply