PORTLAND, Maine — With thousands of people expected to travel into the path of totality of the solar eclipse, people are wondering how their cellphones might be affected.
THE QUESTION:
One of the most common questions: Does a solar eclipse make your cellphone act strangely?
THE SOURCES:
- Verizon
- AT&T
- U.S. Cellular
- T-Mobile
- Apple
THE ANSWER:
No, the solar eclipse will not make your phone act strangely, according to the sources we reached out to.
"A solar eclipse doesn’t crank up the electromagnetic radiation more than a normal day, so fear not: phones, tablets, and other devices will do their thing just like any ordinary day with regular weather," T-Mobile wrote on its website.
"No, that is not something that we have seen the solar eclipse affect our wireless devices on," Danielle Bolerjack, engineering relations liaison for U.S. Cellular, said.
Cellular service carriers said that if you plan to take pictures of the eclipse, you may want to use a phone camera filter to protect your lens. That filter is not a substitute for wearing ISO and CE certified eclipse glasses.
"In addition to making sure that only the most important light filters through, you actually have a really good shot of spotting some sunspots along the way if you use it properly," Chris Serico, a Verizon spokesperson, said.
Cellphone companies do not expect the influx of visitors to certain areas to affect cell tower capacity and can monitor and manage usage in real-time. Some companies have deployed extra technology to boost capacity in certain areas, but representatives for several companies expect Maine's network to be able to handle the increase in users on the towers.
The eclipse is on April 8.