What is happening in the corridors of the Nation metro station, between the 11th and 12th arrondissements of Paris? Perhaps you’ve also noticed: your Bluetooth devices tend to go crazy. Especially in the corridor that connects lines 6, 1, and 2 to line 9. The headphones beep in all directions, the music cuts off, restarts… As if an invisible disturbance is swirling in this area, without us really understanding why. Even more amusing: the phenomenon occurs very precisely in the same place, every time.
The theory of air currents and electrical interference?
So we asked ourselves: why do our Bluetooth headsets and headphones react this way in this corner of the Paris metro? Since we are not really experts on the subject, we first asked one of the largest group of train enthusiasts (rail transport enthusiasts) on the web: the RATP Reddit community.
“The most likely cause, apart from a simple coincidence, would be electromagnetic interference that disrupts the signal between your phone and your headset. Perhaps there is an electrical transformer or another high-power installation in a nearby closet,” suggests the user Adrien0623, a regular forum member. A simple, rational explanation… and quite believable.
TradtionalLet1490 also has a theory: “A transformer, I don’t know, it’s still low frequency. However, they are installing 5G in the tunnels, I would bet on that instead.”
Can we rule out chance?
The hypothesis of chance, however, seems to be able to be ruled out. We tested the phenomenon several times and it systematically reappears. More precisely: if we stop right at the bottom of the stairs of line 2, our Bluetooth devices seem to go completely haywire.
There is also the theory of air currents (a theory favored by the author of these lines). A simple breath in the metro could very well brush against a headphone earbud and activate a slightly too sensitive touch button. Another user, Anwen11, also confirms that the idea is not so absurd: “Some headsets have an option that pauses the music when they detect that you take them off your ears. I don’t exactly know what sensors they use. Sometimes, just turning my head quickly in a train is enough to pause them. So it wouldn’t be crazy that a gust of air [does the same].”
But, we must also admit, there is no air at all, let alone wind, circulating in that place.
Another user, lwlwlw_ouch, also breaks our solitude and claims to have observed the same phenomenon elsewhere: “For a while, I had the same problem coming out of the Place d’Italie metro station, and I was exactly asking the same question!”
What if the phenomenon comes from line 2?
Finally, we decided to directly ask the master of the place: the RATP, who was kind enough to respond. “Tests conducted with several models of Bluetooth headsets did not reproduce the mentioned phenomenon,” the management explains, while ruling out the hypothesis of 4G emissions: “Additional measurements have ruled out this possibility: the measured emissions in the vicinity remain below thresholds likely to cause disturbances.”
But all hope is not lost: the solution could come from the rolling stock of line 2. The RATP specifies: “One possible lead concerns the presence of wifi equipment used for communication with the trains, especially on line 2.” A hypothesis that seems, at least geographically, to correspond to the observed phenomenon.
“This equipment can operate on frequency bands close to those of Bluetooth, which can, in some cases, be perceived as a punctual disturbance by consumer devices,” adds the management. Before concluding: “At this stage, the checks carried out on this system show nothing abnormal.”
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