Understanding Dropped Calls

To understand some common problems with calls we need to look at the basics of how cellular communications work. You need to think of your cell phone like a radio. Cellular towers send out a signal and if you are in "direct view" of the signal you are able to make and receive calls. Sometimes the signals can "bounce" or "reflect" off of other buildings to reach you. If you are close enough or the signal is strong enough it can penetrate wall, windows etc. If you are in the basement, or a building with thick concrete or complex steel, you will have a weak signal or no signal. If this happens your phone will display "no signal" or a similar message.

If you are in a car, or bus and the signal is getting progressively worse it is because you are moving outside of the "direct view" of the signal. The phone is always searching for additional signal and comparing them to the one it has, and will switch to more powerful signal when it becomes available. If you've ever been on a call with a lot of static that all of the sudden cleared up, you have experienced this first hand.

Dropped calls are caused by one of the parties moving outside of the calling area and the phone being unable to find a signal of sufficient strength. While this usually happens in suburban or rural areas it can happen in metropolitan area that are very congested and have poor cellular coverage.

A "system busy" message has nothing to do with signal strength or clarity. Instead this means the cell of the network you are subscribed to is at or near peak capacity and is not accepting any new calls. This generally happens during "peak hours" as that is when the cellular network has its highest usage.