To my annoyance, I have discovered a fault with the iPhone 5 which is a real nuisance. Every iPhone 5 has this problem, but not everyone will have had it hit them yet.

I first noticed that I was in a high reception area, but my iPhone 5 had “No Service” on the status bar. Previously I had been out of range for over 10 mins. So after some investigation in the web and with my handset I can conclude the following.

Creating the fault – simply allow your iPhone 5 to be out of network range for more than 10 mins. The 5 drops permanently from the network.

Workarounds – None of the workarounds are ideal. First turn mobile data off. Second if you lose reception try turning airplane mode and or off. This works for some people. Otherwise you need to hard reset the iPhone 5 by holding the home and power button together until phone reboots with Apple logo.

Cure – testing iOS beta 6.1 seems to resolve this. Just how to wait for the official release which could be months away.

Ideal ? Not at all !

Update – by turning off mobile data but using wifi instead the iPhone 5 has kept a signal is my rural location and battery life has dramatically increased.