Apples iPhone 4 antenna and the FCC

So the story of the dropped calls and poor cellular reception due to the placement of the antenna in Apple's new iPhone rumbles on, but with a new twist - it's not their fault blame the FCC. Yup apologists everywhere are popping up to say this is a design flaw in all mobile phones and not just the latest iPhone, and it's not their fault so can you stop with the hating?

Um no. See it's interesting how an attempt has been made to shift the blame to the FCC because they have pretty much nothing to do with this. The FCC measure the amount of radiation mobile phones produce when in proximity to a human head, if it produces more than 1.6 watts per kilogram it fails. So what's this got to do with anything? Well the thing pumping out that radiation is the antenna.

Now back in ye olden days mobiles had extendible antenna, this was fine as it kept the radiation away from your brain. Then over time models shrunk the antenna down, at the same time the awareness that holding a radiation source next to your brain might not be a good idea appeared so guidelines were set down. This caused a problem with mobile phone designers. The logical place to situate an antenna is at the top of the phone where the big absorbing bag o'salty water known as the user wouldn't interfere with it. However that would put it next to that big spongy mass the user calls a brain. So either the power would need to be limited and thus reduce the range of the phone or it would fail the FCC test. The third option was chosen and the antennas were moved to the bottom of the phones with all the attendant problems that have been reported.

Is this the FCC's fault - no. The apologists claim the testing is inadequate because the FCC don't require a hand to be present just the head. Why should they need a hand to be present they don't give a damn about the reception they're testing the amount of radiation that would be pumped into your head. So long as it passes that and broadcasts using the appropriate frequencies why should they care if it's only powerful enough to connect to a cell tower sat in your back garden?

It's the designers who don't want to return to sticky-up antenna, it's the designers who don't want to drop the power (thus range) of their products. Moreover it seems it's their tests that aren't up to scratch. It's claimed  that AT&T test antenna efficiency in the same way as the FCC without a hand being present. Now this is interesting as it's known that the placement of the hand alters the properties of the signal. So when testing that signal why isn't a factor included that is both known to alter it and is highly probable to be present when the product is in use?

But hey no it's not Apple's fault it's that nasty FCC right?