They were showing 5 bars at -98 dBm? And it was their 4'th phone? Was this code written by marketers? As I remember that situation - Apple hired some fancy guy who helped develop the iPhone 4 "external" antenna. And he was fired because of antenna-gate. It seems that this firing was well deserved.
The Apple iPhone 4 was an exciting upgrade with a brand-new design and a Retina display, but shortly after its launch, users complained about poor reception, leading to "Antennagate." A code analysis now reveals how a faulty 20-byte code was primarily responsible.