Mobile Phone Signal Issues: What You Need to Know
Despite advances in cellular technology, intermittent mobile service is still a regular occurrence, particularly in areas with growing populations and cellular traffic. Degraded mobile service is typically the reason for dropped calls, calls that don’t go through, and “fish tank” sounds heard during calls.
However, not everyone is impacted by poor signal reception, and a variety of circumstances may influence the signal and reception quality of cell phones.
What is the cause of a weak cell signal?
Construction and Building Materials
When cellular coverage is spotty indoors, it is most often due to obstructions from construction materials blocking the cell signal. Steel, low-E glass (glass with a coating or tint applied), concrete, solid wood, and other building materials are the main culprits when it comes to cellular signal penetration.
To differing degrees, different materials impede cellphone signals. Steel is the primary offender, which impedes or weakens service as it travels through, followed by low-E glass and concrete walls. This is particularly problematic with thick walls. It’s possible that the building’s center will effectively become a dead zone.
Distance from Cell Towers
There is a limit to how far cellular signals can go before they get weaker. The real range varies with the topography, frequency, and power of the signal transmitter. The signal is weaker the farther the phone is from a cell tower and the more obstructions there are in its path. One-bar service and echoing voices during calls are the results of this. Due to the sparseness of cell towers in rural areas and remote regions, residents in these areas are typically the most impacted.
High Volume of Cellular Data and Congestion
In highly congested areas, every mobile device fights for space on the closest cell tower; yet, the tower can only accommodate a certain number of devices and users at once. There is a limit to the capacity for cell towers, and extra calls and traffic are diverted when the threshold is reached. As more devices connect to a tower, the signal deteriorates for all of the connected devices — calls are dropped or cannot be completed. This is most apparent at festivals, in traffic, and at home during peak hours.
During periods of network congestion, cellular companies throttle some connections as part of their network management protocols. More expensive cellular plans are given preference over less expensive ones by the network. Furthermore, priority is given to devices that receive a stronger signal from the tower.
Meteorological Factors
Electromagnetic waves, which are used to broadcast and receive cell signals, are highly susceptible to interference from weather-related phenomena such as wind, rain, thunder, snow, and humidity.
When rare weather occurrences like solar flares interfere with Earth’s magnetic field, it can also be detrimental to mobile communications networks.
Low Battery
A mobile device’s battery gets drained by weak cell signals since they cause it to continuously look for and attempt to connect to an elusive connection. The phone cannot perform at its best when the battery is low, especially since some phones go into automatic power-saving mode. When a phone’s battery is low, it may have trouble maintaining a connection with a cell tower because it requires a significant amount of energy.
Keeping the phone charged could be the easy fix for this.
Dead Zones
Some service providers might not provide sufficient coverage in certain parts of a given area. A user may unexpectedly lose service, especially when navigating around the house or in certain places.
Locations without mobile service are known as dead zones. This may be brought on by an overall scarcity of cell towers or by any kind of obstruction that keeps mobile device users from connecting to a tower. Most cellular service providers give a coverage map that indicates the areas in which their service is adequately available.
Blocked Antenna
All cell phones need antennas to transmit cellular signals; however, although older versions had external antennas, most of the latest model phones have antennas integrated inside. Cell service reception may be hampered by implanted antennae, which are simple to block with metallic phone covers or magnetic plates.
The obstruction may cause negligible signal loss in locations with good signal strength, but it may significantly impact users in environments close to dead zones.
Terrain
Natural obstructions such as hills, mountains, and forests also pose a significant threat to cell signals since they are largely ineffective at going through physical barriers. Cell reception and service are likely to drastically deteriorate for residents under dense tree cover or living on one side of a mountain with a cell tower on the other.
Potential Fixes for Weak Mobile Signals
Poor mobile signal and reception troubles can be resolved, or at least lessened, using a few tactics, tips, and treatments that can be employed;
- Make certain that your phone and cell towers are not obstructed. During calls, this may entail moving away from concrete walls or metallic objects and toward a window or outside.
- Moving away from populated regions in which the odds of cell towers being overcrowded are higher owing to increasing traffic.
- Make sure the phone has adequate battery life to maintain a connection to a far-off cell tower or search for stronger signals.
- If the phone case is thick and metallic, removing it could help the phone antenna receive a stronger signal.
- Resetting the network settings: Be cautious since this procedure can wipe out any saved VPN connections, APN settings, and Wi-Fi passwords.
- Switching between Airplane mode and off compels the phone to restart its wireless adapters and applications — such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and cellular network modems — as well as search for and identify the strongest signals nearby, particularly when it is in motion.
- Getting in touch with the service provider can sometimes resolve issues. There are several reasons why a cell tower can be down, such as broken fiber cables and power outages. Although they are outside of your control, they can answer any questions you may have.
- SIM card fault: Once more, contacting the appropriate service provider can help allay any concerns.
Signal Amplifiers and Boosters
Getting a cell signal booster is by far the most practical answer if other DIY fixes have failed.
Inside a room, house, or building, a signal booster receives the same cellular signal that the cellular operator transmits, amplifies, and rebroadcasts.
They accomplish this by receiving the signal via an external antenna and transmitting it via a cable — typically coaxial — to the amplifying device inside the building. Through strategically positioned indoor antennae around the building’s dead zones, the amplifier redistributes the signal.
—
