Service outages in small rural areas may not be announced on social media.

Customer support wait times may be long if other users are affected.

Both major and minor mobile service interruptions are usually posted on a providers website and social media accounts.

Elderly couple with a laptop, mobile phone, and phone bills.

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Testing this is very easy to do and only takes a few minutes.

This can be frustrating if parts of your house or office are signal dead zones.

This is a very reliable tip that works a lot of the time.

A woman sitting near an open door checking her mobile phone.

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Once children discover this setting, they’ll often prank their parents by turning it on.

Unfortunately, this setting can often be switched on accidentally, especially when fiddling around with internet tweaks.

Airplane Mode is usually represented by an airplane icon.

A woman sitting on an airplane listening to a tech podcast on her smartphone.

Ben Pipe Photography / Cultura

Turning Airplane Mode off can be done very easily on both iOS and Android smart devices.

Turning off BluetoothandWi-Fi wireless connectionscan be an effective way to get better phone signals.

Your new Bluetooth headphones may be great but they could also be the cause of your phone problems.

Woman wearing Bose Headphones 700 Silver Bluetooth headset.

Bose

A conflict could still be happening even if you have full bars.

If your Wi-Fi is the problem, you may need to try increasing its signal strength.

Downloading and installing updates can take several hours depending on your internet speed.

Image of a TikTok video being downloaded from a smartphone with data being shown as rainbow colors.

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The entire process only takes a few seconds.

You will need to re-enter all of your internet passwords after doing this.

The option to select online grid operators is limited to only some Android devices and areas.

Decentralized network over a city at night.

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To see if this option is available, tapSettings>Mobile Networks>web connection operators>Search networks.

A range of internet operator options should appear.

Most models support a variety of cellular carriers.

Illustration of two cartoon hands holding mobile phones with locked and unlocked symbols.

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Signal boosters can be expensive with some costing over $1,000.

Do cell phone signal boosters work?

A lot of the time, yes.

A weBoost signal booster installed in a home.

Wilson Electronics

Upgrading can be free with some providers if you’ve been with them for a while.

There’s no denying that it can be hard to let go of your favorite devices.

It can be frustrating when you feel forced to upgrade just to get a usable signal.

T-Mobile employees in a branch greeting customers.

​T-Mobile

There are a wide variety of phone call apps to choose from and most are free.

You will need to keep an eye on your internet data usage if you’re on a small plan.

Woman standing in the rain with an umbrella checking her iPhone weather app

Your weather app doesn’t have to be so basic.Westend61