buggy apple software is mostly to blame for the problems. Every iPhone 3g needs to be on the updated software of they will continue to cause problems. The only network issue on AT&T's side is capacity, so the buggy iPhone 3g's are really eating up the capacity quickly. Once all the phones have to updated software there will be a very dramatic drop in problems.
http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/08/insider-iphones.html
http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/08/apple-iphone-up.html
http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/08/insider-iphones.html
http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/08/apple-iphone-up.html