Southeast Queensland mobile phone reception black spots Southeast Queensland's worst mobile phone black spots have been revealed. Photo: Belinda Pratten Forty years ago, a visionary American inventor made the first mobile phone call from a busy New York street corner. Should Martin Cooper find himself trying to make a mobile phone call from on a street corner in downtown Brisbane today, he may not have similar success. Despite decades in technological advancements, black spots continue to exacerbate mobile phone users. Queensland's mobile black spots. Photo: Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman In Brisbane, the suburbs of New Farm and South Brisbane top the list of black spot zones. The Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman received 458 complaints from frustrated mobile phone users in New Farm and South Brisbane, whose main gripe was poor network coverage, last financial year. Surfers Paradise, Broadbeach and Southport round out the list of most troublesome black spots in southeast Queensland. One per cent of residents in those Gold Coast suburbs complained to the ombudsman about poor mobile phone coverage in the 2011-12 financial year. Other "dead zones" include Burleigh Heads, Reedy Creek and the Studio Village housing estates surrounding Movie World. There are three main reasons for the development of black spots, University of Queensland associate professor Vaughan Clarkson explained. The most common of those is obstruction, he said. "Basically, if you're behind something big like a high rise tower or mountain that can shield you from getting the radio signals through from the base station," Dr Clarkson, an expert in signal processing, said. He said black spots can also be created when network signals are reflected off different structures or features of the environment. "This can be the result of a bad configuration of things around you," he said. Basically the radio waves received from your mobile phone at tower somehow cancel each other out. This is often the case atop Mount Coot-tha, where three large transmitters interfere with mobile phone reception. Thirdly, there's the simple factor of distance. "If you're just too far away from any tower then you won't have sufficient signal strength," Dr Clarkson said. Mobile phone users, who experience signal problems in the inner-city, do so because of the "urban canyon" effect, he said. "As the name suggests, because you have a grid pattern of streets and high rise buildings all around, you get these canyons where the signal bounces around and cancels itself out," Dr Clarkson said. Black spots can be extremely isolated, he added. If you're convinced, for example, that you're home is a black spot you may not be far wrong. "In those cases, I believe it comes down to geometry," Dr Clarkson said. In my case, I believe it's the orientation of the landscape around my home that makes it impossible for me to take calls in one room, but not in another. In what areas do you experience black spots? Let us know below.