Once again, I have never owned another phone on AT&T other than iPhones. Though I believe the current issues splashed all over the internet today and yesterday may be software related, the iPhone itself has had reception issues for years, due to it's poor antenna. I've witnessed this myself, as my iPhone 3G dropped a call, while my sister's AT&T slider phone, in the same exact location, had great reception. So I can't really blame AT&T, my sister claims she's never had reception issue with her slider phone. I had a call dropped in my apartment the other night, and I always had good reception at home.
Regardless, no phone seems perfect, no network seems perfect, though I keep hearing that Verizon is as close to perfect as it comes to strong reception, great voice quality, etc.