An Australian man’s faulty beer fridge is being blamed for blackouts in the mobile network in multiple neighborhoods.
“I’m amazed something like that could knock out part of the network,” fridge owner Craig Reynolds told the Herald Sun last weekend.
The interference, spread throughout the town of Wangaratta, is believed to have been caused by the fridge’s emissions of unusual electrical signals.
Engineers from Australian telecom company Telstra report that any electric signal of a large enough strength can generate radio frequency noise that causes blackouts.
“You’re certainly going to stop and wonder. I’m going to run and see if my fridge is all right next time there’s a problem with the network,” Reynolds said.