Expressions about a phone call and its quality

Solution 1:

Your question relates to appropriate agreement in figures of speech, specifically in a telecommunications signal or telecommunications connection.

Here are some examples of possible word constructions, based on the words you provided:

a caller on the line

lose a call/caller

lose a connection/signal

line/connection/signal is not stable

line/connection/signal is weak

Here are examples of these (above) in sentences such as you provided:

" Well, it looks like your signal is weak out there."

" Well, it looks like your call could get dropped out there."

"I think I'm losing you on the line."

"I think I'm losing you."

drop has special, even legal, meaning and refers to maintaining a signal or connection in telecommunications...

dropped call (Economic Times, TRAI)

Definition of call drop as per TRAI is, "Call drop represents the service provider's inability to maintain a call once it has been correctly established i.e. call dropped or interrupted prior to its normal completion by the user, the cause of the early termination being within the service provider's network."

The carrier is the "Subject" of the verb and does the actual "dropping". So, for your laptop and WiFi, your laptop doesn't drop the WiFi, the WiFi [router] drops your laptop [connection].

Examples of "dropped call" in sentences:

The call dropped.

My WiFi signal/connection dropped.

WiFi keeps dropping my laptop/connection.

Mobile/Cell service keeps dropping my calls.

Further consideration...

These do need to be used correctly to avoid confusion. For example, "drop a line" means to give someone a brief message, not lose a call. Likewise, we don't "march a dog", we "walk a dog"; "marching [someone]" usually means making someone walk by force.

Of course, if you want an exact phrase from what was said on the radio that day, you would need a manuscript or recording from Brisbane, Australia's ABC News. But, that would be beyond our scope and purpose here.