Ever feel as if you are in one of those mobile phone commercials where people lose their cell phone signal right in the middle of an important conversation? This has happened to me - a lot! Dropped calls are maddening and tend to be frustrating when you can't keep reception on your cell phone, especially during those pivotal moments.

When searching for a solution to fix your lack of reception, it's important to first try and pinpoint the underlying issue. Is your battery fully charged? Sometimes if a battery is weak, it cannot properly receive the signal needed to maintain the calls.

Next, check your surroundings and try to determine where and when you are dropping signals. Are you typically inside or outside? Does it occur only in specific geographic areas, or is your mobile constantly losing service no matter where you are?

If you notice it only seems to be happening in the area you live in, check your cell phone carrier's area of coverage, most wireless companies list this information on their website. Also, give them a call and ask if you are in a location which has towers nearby and deemed to have strong signals. Let your carrier know you are having issues and see if they can offer a formidable solution.

If the coverage itself is determined to be adequate, you might be able to make a few modifications to your phone or home to improve reception. Here are a few options:

1. Get an external antenna. For a nominal, yet relatively inexpensive, price you can try to improve reception by adding antenna power to your phone. Sometimes this works, but other times it may not. Before spending money on this, try to determine the problem is with your actual phone and not the coverage area.

2. Consider a power booster. The booster is more costly than the antenna, but this device will hopefully increase reception capabilities. A little more expensive than option #1, but might be worth the extra cost as the external antennas aren't always the best solution. Also, check with your provider and see if this is cheaper than purchasing a new phone. The latter may be a better investment.

3. If you only lose reception while in your home, it's probably due to the structure or materials the house is made of. In this scenario, you might want to consider putting an external antenna on the house. This is the most costly solution, so you'd have to weigh out the cost factor vs. how much it's worth to you to have cell reception in your home. Before going through this expense, you might want to check if you can get sufficient coverage by moving towards a window to see if the situation improves any. Sounds simple, but sometimes this is enough to solve the problem.

If you find your cell phone company only has a mediocre signal in your area, it might be cheaper to change carriers. If trying to increase levels of reception ends up costing more than it is worth and you really must rely on your mobile phone instead of a landline, changing providers might be worth the fees as opposed to pouring money into solutions. Before you do this though, check with other vendors to see where their coverage areas are. If there are no cellular towers in the vicinity at all, the problem will continue to persist no matter who your carrier is.

Dropped calls are annoying, no doubt about it, but hopefully trying one of the above suggestions will do the trick!

Learn more about this author, Leigh Goessl.
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