[darkFunction]

I used to get a very sharp pain in my head, above my ear, when making outbound calls, just before the recipient would pick up. Nobody seems to believe me, and I have never had the motivation to try to prove it to anyone, but it got to the point where I would hold the phone away from my head until the person answered.

It began with a Sony Ericsson, but happened across a couple of different phone brands over the years. Still happens extremely occasionally now (maybe twice a year) with my iPhone.

I'd be interested to know if the signal strength is suddenly spiked when a call is connected.

[dekhn]

I get a sharp pain in my head above my ear from my glasses. The skin right there is very sensitive. Just rubbing things (including phones) causes the same senstation.

[markus92]

Not when it comes to GSM, it has consistent timeslots for active calls. The dial tone is modulated the same way as speech data and can be considered active.