What Happened?!

[Audaciousfox]

Getting a satisfactory answer to one question justifies my joining the board (should I be asked to justify it).
What started the whole cell phone mess to begin with??!!??

I read Cell three times - the first two consecutively because I was positive I missed something (and it seems I'm not alone). I'm not posting this under an "ending?" thread because I 'got' the ending and liked it just fine. What I don't get is what started it all. If I recall correctly, there is an ambiguous reference, maybe two, to maybe a couple of careless nerds experimenting in a garage...or something to that effect. That's not enough for me (tough cookies, huh?)...did anyone pick up on something more?

Not knowing has made this my least favorite King novel. Excellent story without a cause (to my mind).

[wally wonder]

it was that guy from metropolis, clark's younger bro, 'can you hear me now?'...that, or maybe way back in the day, ole neanderthal sending signals on the hollow log to cro-magnon, 'i'm gone whup you, boy!' and cro-magnon, frustrated w/his cranial capacity, misunderstood the message but was sure of the content, he had that much right, went crashing through the brambles and the rest as they say, is history.

[dwalters]

If I'm not mistaken, no official answer was ever given in the story. That's part of what made it scary. One minute it's just everyday life, and the next it's absolute mayhem. To me, this makes it feel like I relate more to the characters since they don't know any more about the situation than I do.

However, I believe there was some speculation by the professor guy (can't remember his name right now) that it was either a terrorist plot or a couple of hackers trying to cause some mischief.