Happy iPhone user here in North Eastern US, but I think your logic (and the TFA's) is faulty:

It is completely possible that it is a problem with the iPhone, but one that is only visibly affecting the network when there's a high density of iPhones being used in a small geographical area.

It's like the whole controversial 'pre-fetch' setting on Fasterfox and other 'web accelerators'. It's fine for individual users, but it violates the contract of how network clients (browsers) are expected to act.

Once there's a sizable number of people using the technology it becomes a problem that affects everyone.

To say that the issues only occur in large metropolitan areas does not completely exclude the iPhone itself from being a contributing factor.

See I understand where you are coming from but the comment about Hawaii's network makes me think otherwise. (Usually the AT&T complaints are limited to Chicago California and New York so that also brings to question why isn't everyone else experiencing such issues.)

Funny, I'm writing this from my iPhone while on vacation in tahoe, nv. My first thought when gettng online was that the network qualtiy here is great, much better than sf.

I live in Honolulu, have a 3GS, and have no idea what all these “AT&T sucks” articles are about. Yeah, I think it’s a SF/NY thing, but y’all are the ones who control the media.