Ofcom, the UK's regulatory agency for communications companies, has released some tips for people who will need to stay at home due to measures taken to contain the coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), causing a probable increase of domestic internet traffic. Most of the tips are basic, like the one that prompts you to remove video from calls in case the signal is weak. But there is one that has been particularly noticeable: it invites you not to use the microwave oven while you need a solid and fast internet connection.
In fact it is: a microwave oven in operation can interfere with the WiFi signal and in some cases even cancel it. It happens, very briefly, because both internet-connected devices and microwaves use, each for their own purposes, very similar low-frequency waves. If router waves are made to go wherever they are needed, microwave waves are made to stay in the microwave, heating the food inside. Occasionally, however, it happens – without this entailing any health problems for those around us – that some waves come out of the microwave, interfering with those of the router.
Both the microwaves that heat food and those that allow WiFi devices to work are in fact very high frequency waves (about 2.4 GHz), similar but not identical. They can therefore interfere with each other, and it can happen that those of the microwave hinder the spread of those of the router. Two more technical and detailed explanations, with some pictures and possible solutions to the problem (however rather rare), can be found here and here.
– Read also: Solutions to improve the WiFi signal at home
