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Dropped Call? Blame the Sun

by Tom Conlon on July 9, 2007 at 12:22 PM

Dropped Call? Blame the Sun

Sure, you might expect to have a cellular call drop out on you in a tunnel or inside of a big building, but what about when you're outside and there doesn't seem to be anything getting in the way between your phone and the nearest cell tower? Researchers at Canada's Queen's University think it's the sun. More specifically, they blame solar flares, the fiery storms exploding on the sun's surface, which are responsible for the Northern Lights phenomenon. The team found that during solar flares, phone calls routed through cell towers facing the sun had a drop rate up to nine percent higher than towers not facing the sun.

As for why this happens, you'll have to read the full report when it's published in the upcoming edition of the journal, 'Proceedings of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.' What can you do to prevent this from happening? Not a damn thing.

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