Poor network reception is a problem that many people grapple with in different parts of the world. In this post, we’re going to be looking at the Effects of poor network on phones.

Poor (cellular) network can be defined as when a phone cannot get a good signal from a network provider either via cell tower or WiFi.

Read: How to read network signal strength on your smartphone

Poor network affects a lot of people in the world today, especially those living in rural or sparsely populated areas.

Whilst it is not immediately apparent, poor network can take a toll on your smartphone. Some of the effects of poor network on phones include:

1. Battery life

Lots of people will proclaim loudly and proudly that they value battery life a lot. Yet they’ll move to an area that has poor network.

Others would deliberately use a network with poor reception instead of switching to one with better signal.

In the past, I have seen people persist with X network provider in an area where Y network has better reception and yet, they’ll be wondering why their batteries do not last like they used to.

Poor signal forces your network modem to search father and wider for signal. Inorder to successfully do this, it’s going to request for more battery power. The phone would then have to pump more battery to the modem.

Now whilst your phone may connect to the network that you desire, this would come at two huge costs:

  1. Increased battery drain
  2. Increased heating

As we should all know, heat is the number 1 enemy of Lithium batteries. It will destroy the battery chemicals, cause swelling and reduce the battery capacity.

This in turn will reduce the battery cycles and lifespan. Thus the battery will wear out faster than normal and the owner would start looking for at least a replacement battery or a new phone.

2. Smartphone speed

It is generally agreed that a phone’s speed is down to it’s hardware, SoC, RAM, Storage etc. However, when you’re online, network speed goes a long way and bad network would mess up your phone’s speed.

You could simply spend hours looking at your phone as it would take forever to load, move from one menu to another or even send a simple message or photo.

Bad network doesn’t respect any phone, whether it’s an iPhone 14 Pro Max or Xiaomi 12S Ultra. It won’t matter.

The phone would struggle to load anything. All the while, your battery will be draining and your phone would be heating up.

3. Your phone’s longevity

Well we’ve already covered batteries earlier so I see no need to dwell on those. Other parts of your phone like the motherboard, display etc may react poorly to heating.

The gum or soldering lead used to hold some components into place may melt or weaken, while some other parts may get burnt outright.

Soon the phone may begin to act up and manifest issues.

4. Smartphone experience

Your overall smartphone experience will suffer. From slow loading times to a slower phone. From increased battery drain to a much hotter phone.

So yeah, it is important to check for signal strength before moving to a new place.

What you can do

  • Switch to a network provider with better network signal
  • Move to an area with better network connection
  • Get and install a signal booster in your house
  • Switch to a wired network connection like WLAN.
  • Avoid doing heavy tasks on a poor network.

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