BBC Radio phone dropouts

[rupert the dog]

I've noticed that recently there seems to be a high frequency of phone lines going down in the middle of various BBC Radio programmes. I mainly listen to Radio 5 Live, so that's where I find it very noticeable, almost every programme will at some stage suffer from a "....and we appear to have lost contact with Sid, and we'll try to get back to him as soon as we can..." moment (or moments). I can't be sure but I do think the frequency has increased since they moved to t'North. Anyone else noticed, or know of any reason for it?

[JungleJim]

Increased use of mobile phones, Skype etc. There was something about it radio 4s feedback a few months ago.

[davepoth]

JungleJim said:

Increased use of mobile phones, Skype etc. There was something about it radio 4s feedback a few months ago.

Pretty much that. Where they would have sent out a radio car that had a massive antenna and an engineer in it a few years ago, or maybe asked someone into a local studio to do an interview down an ISDN line, they now just have an app on a smartphone. Cheaper, but if you've used the internet you'll know it's not that robust. Added to that, they do a lot more stuff live rather than recorded.

The rationale is that they can get closer to the news this way but it is quite annoying. And don't even get me started on pointless outside broadcasts.