eli5 Why does cell phone service sometime get worse in areas with more people?

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We went to Disney World and my phone showed that I had full bars of 5 G and nothing would load. I’ve heard that it has something to do with the amount of people in the area but that doesn’t make sense to me. Can you please help me understand?

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4 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Imagine you are at an ice cream stand. If you are the only one there you can get an ice cream cone (this is the data you want) as fast as the server can give you one. So you cone after cone as fast as you request one.

If another person comes along you can only get half as many cones – because the server has to alternate between you.

If more people come along, you have to form a line, with each person going to the back of the line before their turn comes again.

The longer the line, the longer it takes to get your next cone, which is why it takes so long to download something.

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