# Why was my phone two hours off?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-my-phone-two-hours-off/617587
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [April 2, 2012, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-my-phone-two-hours-off/617587 "2012-04-02T16:00:56Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2012, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-my-phone-two-hours-off/617587/1 "2012-04-02T16:00:56Z")
I was in the Nebraska panhandle this weekend and two of us in the group had phones that were ahead by two hours. One hour would make sense as it could be a tower in the Central time zone but what about the second hour? Can’t be a Daylight Saving issue (like a rogue high-powered super-secret snowback tower for CT&t, eh) as that would set it back an hour.
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### Author:  [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2012, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-my-phone-two-hours-off/617587/2 "2012-04-02T16:45:59Z")
Under the pre-2007 rules, DST started this Sunday. Maybe your phone service provider has a bug that is calculating DST incorrectly, and doing the adjustment twice.
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### Author:  [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2012, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-my-phone-two-hours-off/617587/3 "2012-04-02T18:14:16Z")
> [@beowulff](#):
>
> Under the pre-2007 rules, DST started this Sunday. Maybe your phone service provider has a bug that is calculating DST incorrectly, and doing the adjustment twice.
So picking up a Central Time tower and another “Spring Forward?” that would do it except the other person’s phone was doing the same thing Saturday (my phone was turned off at that time).
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### Author:  [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2012, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-my-phone-two-hours-off/617587/4 "2012-04-02T18:27:01Z")
The cell provider sends out a time/date string that looks like this:
> [@](#):
>
> +WIND: \ [,1, “\”] [,2, “\”] [,3, “\”] [,4, “Universal time and local time zone\>”] [,5, “\”] [,6, "Daylight Saving Time\>”]
-
Note that they provide, local time and UTC, and a DST flag, so there are a lot of places where they can screw up. I’ve see my iPhone get DST wrong (we don’t observe it in AZ, and it changed on my phone one year), so I don’t find it that hard to believe that someone’s database is wrong.
- from: GPRS AT Commands for Multi-Tech G2 Wireless Modems, AT Commands Reference Guide
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### Author:  [@AaronX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AaronX)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2012, 8:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-my-phone-two-hours-off/617587/5 "2012-04-03T08:24:01Z")
Could your phone have roamed onto a provider on a different time zone? Is your time set automatically? I’ve woken up with my phone on a different time zone because it switched to another country’s provider, which is very worrying when you use your phone as an alarm.
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### Author:  [@Fubaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fubaya)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2012, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-my-phone-two-hours-off/617587/6 "2012-04-03T15:45:00Z")
No answer, but my phone has been off by an hour a few times and it’s been nowhere near a DST change or another time zone. I always keep the time auto update turned off because of it.