Apple released the highly-anticipated iOS 6.1 recently and now reports suggest that a 3G bug has been bothering iPhone 4S users. Vodafone UK has sent out a text to its iPhone 4S customers to hold off updating their smartphones to iOS 6.1.

iPhone 4S users on Vodafone UK have been experiencing problems with both carrier services and battery life since updating to the latest version of iOS.

"We're aware of an issue caused by Apple iPhone 4s handsets that have been upgraded to iOS 6.1 which impacts performance on 3G," notes the official statement released by Vodafone UK.

"Some customers may occasionally experience difficulty in connecting to the network to make or receive calls or texts or to connect to the Internet. Apple is working on a solution to their software issue. These connection problems are intermittent," reads the official Vodafone statement.

The carrier had also sent a text to its iPhone 4S users, which says "If you've not already downloaded iOS 6.1 for your iPhone 4s, please hold off for the next version while Apple fixes 3G performance issues. Thanks"

On Wednesday, Feb. 5, Apple seeded its first beta of iOS 6.1.1 to developers. It's a possibility that Apple is working on a fix. However, the firmware's changelog mentions Japan Maps improvements only.

The Next Web reported that the problem is not just isolated to iPhone 4S, but to other iPhones as well and issues are not limited to Vodafone UK customers alone.

We will have to wait and see how swiftly Apple is able to address the issue and release a fix.