While Apple and AT&T have both been pretty quiet about what could be going wrong with the iPhone 3G, a new source from inside AT&T has finally broken the silence on the "bug fixes" offered in the latest firmware 2.0.2. So was it fixing the iPhone or the iPhone's network? Well, sorta both.

Essentially, the 2.0.2 updated the iPhone to ask for less power from AT&T's towers for UMTS voice and data transmission. Apparently iPhones were simply asking for too much power—more than the handsets actually required—and when many iPhone users were stacked on one base transceiver station tower, the tower simply ran out of power.

No/low tower power equals dropped calls and poor 3G connections.

It's sort of like splitting a chicken for dinner. If everyone grabs just one piece, it can feed a family. But if Dad goes back for seconds before Mom sits down to the talble, someone is going hungry.

The problem will not fix itself until the firmware update is distrubuted to more handsets. So update your phones and bring me another piece of chicken. [DailyTech via CrunchGear]