And I’ve used most every major carrier, and they all do that fairly frequently. The strength display is especially inaccurate when you’re moving or when you are in a particularly unpopulated place.

That said, the iPhone I used for a while did better than my old Nokia and my current Samsung, so it certainly seems to pertain to the hardware, too. I’m guessing many people change carriers at the same time as they change phones, which might make it hard to figure out which one is to blame.