What Do Cell Phone Reception Bars Mean?

Excellent—and I'm going to presume accurate because it has the Stink of Science™—answer from an Ask Metafilter reader about what those five bars actually indicate on your phone.

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. 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.

What do cell phone reception bars mean? [Ask.Metafilter.com]

[#1 posted by strider_mt2k , January 13, 2008 8:48 AM]

I thought cell phone reception bars are where the execs hang out when introducing the new models?

[#2 posted by wangleberry , January 13, 2008 7:59 PM]

"...would terrify users.."

OMFG the signal is fluctuating OMFG the sheer terror! run for the hills!

another case of dumbing things down for the general population...

[#3 posted by historyman68 , January 13, 2008 11:32 PM]

yeah, i love that phrase too

[#4 posted by Xiguli , January 13, 2008 11:44 PM]

My favorite part is "ee-see-over-eye-naught". Like Mother Goose nonsense. But for geek children.

[#5 posted by Anonymous , January 14, 2008 9:35 AM]

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)

I've seen the signal strength display on Nextel phones do exactly that. Wonder if they're using EC/I0?