I believe it's real estate. I replied early to a thread in Pocket PC Thoughts about this and the general reliability of the iPhone.

My Treo 750 (AT&T 3G, WM 6.0) and my iPhone 3G get the same reception. Does the Treo have the same chip ? Possibly but that wouldn't explain why on Sunday according to the iphone speedtest at dslreports the iPhone got 7 kbs (way worse than dial-up) at one point during the day and then a scant hour later was clocking in at 700 kbs. Judging from the lines I saw around New York, AT&T found themselves with a huge load of new subscribers. It just seems like network capacity. Especially if all these guys are suddenly running Pandora and the other internet radio apps. Certainly a consideration.

By the way how does anyone know that the Verizon phones get better reception ? Bricks don't talk

Regards,
Kurt