The scenario describes a high-density environment—a major music festival. In such locations, a large number of mobile devices attempt to connect to the cellular network simultaneously. This high demand can exceed the capacity of the local cell towers, leading to network congestion. Symptoms of network congestion include slow data speeds, connection timeouts, and the inability to access online services, which perfectly aligns with the executive's email application getting "stuck during connection attempts." This is the most direct and contextually appropriate cause for the described disruption.

A. The phone has no storage space available: A lack of storage would typically prevent new data from being saved and generate a specific "storage full" error, not cause a network connection to hang.

B. Company firewalls are configured to block remote access to email resources: A firewall policy would likely cause a consistent failure to connect from any remote location, not a performance-related issue specific to a crowded event.

D. The festival organizer prohibits internet usage during the event and has blocked the internet signal: Actively blocking cellular signals (jamming) is highly improbable, technically difficult for a large area, and generally illegal in most jurisdictions.

1. Kurose

J. F.

& Ross

K. W. (2021). Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach (8th ed.). Pearson. In Chapter 1

Section 1.4.2

the text explains that network congestion occurs when the demand for a network link's bandwidth exceeds its capacity

leading to packet loss and increased delays

which manifests as slow performance or connection timeouts for users.

2. Tanenbaum

A. S.

& Wetherall

D. J. (2014). Computer Networks (5th ed.). Pearson Education. Chapter 5

Section 5.3 discusses congestion control

explaining that when too many packets are present in a subnet

performance degrades. This principle applies directly to a cellular network (a subnet) being overwhelmed by too many devices.

3. CompTIA A+ Core 2 (220-1102) Exam Objectives. (n.d.). CompTIA. Section 2.7

"Given a scenario

troubleshoot mobile device issues

" includes troubleshooting "No network connectivity." This objective covers understanding environmental factors like signal strength and interference

which are directly impacted by network congestion in high-density areas.