It appears that one part of the steel band is the Wifi antenna, the other is the cell antenna. When some people touch both the software driving the Wifi channel selection somehow impacts the Cellular connection. As I am not a software engineer I am merely repeating what I read. So a software update is supposedly in the works to fix it pretty quick. I think the numbers of 28% are deceiving. Most people use a case for their phones, so most people will not have this issue.

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles..._ios_4_01.html

Another link reports that the problem appears to be regional, suggesting a network problem, not a phone problem.

http://www.macrumors.com/2010/06/26/...oss-by-region/