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SALT LAKE CITY — We’ve all seen the “lost cell signal” dance.
If someone is holding their phone up to the sky akin to Rafiki in the "The Lion King" presenting baby Simba to the animal kingdom, it’s safe to say they’re probably trying to find a few bars of service.
Yet finding a signal can often feel like a guessing game. Though we’ve carried cellphones around in our pockets for years, the way cell coverage actually works is still a mystery to some.
In its most basic form, a cellphone is like a two-way radio, complete with a radio transmitter and receiver.
When you call someone on your mobile device, your phone converts the sound of your voice into an electric signal, which is then transmitted via electromagnetic radio waves to the nearest cell tower. The network of cell towers then relays the radio wave to the phone of the person you’re talking to, which converts it to an electric signal, and back to sound again.
So while holding your phone up to the sky may feel a little hokey, that instinct isn’t entirely misguided.
Here are 10 ways to boost your cell coverage, according to SureCall — a cellphone signal booster company:
- 1. Get to a window: Walls can often block radio frequency signals, so standing by a window or opening a door can create a pathway for those signals to reach you from the nearest cell tower. Going outside can obviously eliminate several obstacles from blocking your signal.
- 2. Get some space: If you’re in a crowd, then you’re competing with other cellphones for a signal. Try to distance yourself from others before making a phone call.
- 3. Increase your elevation: The lower your elevation, the more things there are to block the radio frequency signals. Climb up to a higher floor or scale a nearby hill to connect to a cell tower.
- 4. Charge your device: It takes power to connect to cell towers. Make sure your phone has the sufficient power it needs by charging your device.
- 5. Close apps: By closing apps you’re not using, you allow your phone to devote all its energy to connecting to a cell tower.
- 6. Reboot signal: To reboot your signal, turn on airplane mode for five seconds, then turn it off. This will give your phone a chance to connect to new cell towers it hadn’t before.
- 7. Use Wi-Fi calling: If you’re connected to Wi-Fi, you can use FaceTime, Skype, Google Hangouts, WhatsApp, Signal or a number of other apps to call using a Wi-Fi signal, rather than a cell signal.
- 8. Locate a tower: Websites like Antenna Search and apps like OpenSignal or Field Test Mode can help you find the nearest cell tower. If you know where it is, you can usually get closer or get a better line of sight of the towers.
- 9. Mind the antenna: Remember the good old flip phones of the early 2000s? If you wanted better signal, you could pull your antenna up to see if you could catch something. Now, most phones store the antenna inside the phone. Hold your phone upright and avoid touching and covering the sides of the device to let the antenna do its work.
- 10. Borrow someone else’s phone: Though not ideal, if you need to make that phone call and you don’t have signal, there’s a chance someone else with a different carrier might. AT&T is known to offer the most coverage in Utah, though other providers, like Verizon and T-Mobile, may offer better coverage in certain areas.
