Whaaat? It's a Fact; Cell Phone Reception Is Getting Worse

Blame increased usage, talking indoors and handset design, but the end result is the same; Cell phone reception quality is declining. Alex Mindlin attempts to report through static, deadzones and traffic noise in the New York Times:

"The quality of wireless phone calls, which improved steadily from 2003 to 2009, has hit a plateau, according to J.D. Power and Associates, the consumer ratings firm. One reason is the increasing number of cellphone calls placed or answered indoors, as people use their cellphones to replace or supplement landlines. Indoor calls tend to be fuzzier than outdoor calls, because the signal must penetrate walls and windows to reach the tower.

Regardless of where the calls were made, J.D. Power said the quality on all handsets — both smartphones and traditional cellphones — seemed to have worsened over the last six months, with smartphones eliciting more complaints than traditional handsets. The firm said that the city with the worst cellphone reception was Washington, where 18 out of every 100 calls was problematic — three times the rate of problems in Pittsburgh and Cincinnati, which had the best call quality.