QI - Nobody Knows, The Meaning of the Signal Bars on your Phone

[CanoasTC]

It's very simple.. the signal bars measure the signal strength. With any number of bars you'll be able to speak, but the lower the signal the more energy your cellphone will use since it will need to create a stronger signal as well.

[GreyLabyrinthine]

5 to 2 bars: You're fine.

1 bar: Soon you'll not be fine any more.

0 bars: You're fucked, especially if you're a brunette or a black guy in a horror movie. How about you switch the damn thing off so that your battery doesn't die on you later precisely in that one moment when your cell picks up a signal again?

[DontMockMySmock]

You can't stop the signal, Mal.

[m0nty75]

i'd say it's more to do with the quality of the signal & the sound to noise ratio. your cell is constantly talking to the cell tower, if there's too much noise then the connection gets rejected until it becomes intelligible.

[HEN000y]

@m0nty75 But its a digital signal, so you are either connected or not, their is no in-between.

[m0nty75]

@HEN000y you don't need to be connected. it will only connect if the signal is of good enough quality when you send data. your phone doesn't connect unless you make a call or send sms, it just sends a response saying "hey, i'm here", the tower then says "hey, i hear you". even though the cell tower can reach your phone, doesnt mean your phone can actually send a signal back of enough quality for it to be intelligible. too much noise & the packets get corrupted or lost completely.

[GreenArrowHood]

I want Stephen's suit!!!

[memyselfandmusic29]

talky power, all gone away....

[Babyhowdy233]

According to my cousin who is an executive at AT&T:

the technical term is "EC/I0" (pronounced "ee-see-over-eye-naught") and it refers to the amount of the signal which is usable. In CDMA you can have strong signal (4 bars) and lousy EC/I0 and not be able to carry a call, and you can have low signal (zero bars) and excellent EC/I0 and carry a call fine.

[Babyhowdy233]

(cont.)

But they can't display EC/I0 because it fluctuates wildly (it could go from zero to four bars and back to zero again in just a few seconds) and would terrify users, so they display the signal strength, which at least has the virtue of being stable, though it doesn't really mean much.

[BeBoBli]

@Babyhowdy233

It probably just averages the EC/I0 over a period of time and sometimes when a particular event happens (bar drops to nothing when a call cuts out). Depends on the programming, not so much that no one knows... kind of silly Stephen phrased it as such considering it has to be programmed by humans.

[imroy264]

Look in the Android source code and you'll have at least one answer. Everything else is closed source. Mind you, the manufacturers and telcos can modify the Android source. So use Cyanogenmod :)

[keropekerope]

I was thinking Akfilm92 would make loads of clips from the eisoe with Brian Cox. It is full of material.

[Akfilm92]

@keropekerope perhaps I will... :)