Archives: Phones & Cell Phones

According to a July 15, 2005, Boston Globe article, Boston's Mayor Thomas M. Menino often gets cut off when talking on his cell phone.  To better understand the problem of dropped calls, Mayor Menino drove through the city of Boston to measure cell phone reception.

"On his trip yesterday, the mayor and an aide monitored reception of service provided by Nextel, Verizon, and Cingular, but Menino focused primarily on Nextel, because it provides phones to more than 1,400 city employees, along with a handful of Blackberry handheld computers that have a cell phone function.

Menino has been complaining privately to Nextel, which has responded by putting up temporary antennas, called COWS (Communication on Wheels), at strategic locations like Franklin Park, where coverage is particularly weak. The company is also adding a cell site at the Shattuck Hospital in Jamaica Plain.

But the mayor says coverage is still too spotty. And, with enough memories of places where he's lost reception to make a map in his brain, he toured several city neighborhoods, noting each time his phone lost its signal. Menino argued that reception is the worst in predominantly minority neighborhoods."

The article goes on to explain what the trip uncovered, better coverage in the wealth neighborhoods and spotty signal strength in the low income areas.

"The mayor monitored reception by watching a line on his phone's display screen that grows longer when signal strength is strong and gets shorter when it is weak. It disappeared as his sport utility vehicle traveled into Roxbury, around Seaver Street and Franklin Park. Then came American Legion Highway in Roslindale, where the phone picked up nothing for blocks. Hyde Park Avenue wasn't much better.

The signal mark returned on River Street in Mattapan, but when his driver ventured into Dorchester, around Washington Street, reception started to wane. Even on Tony Ashmont Hill, among the brightly painted Victorian houses and freshly mowed lawns, coverage was nil.

''When I'm out there, I hear a lot of complaints," he said. ''They're not keeping up with the demand; they don't have enough antennas. More and more people are complaining about their service."

Service improved as the SUV returned downtown, though there were dead pockets in the South End and along Storrow Drive at Beacon Hill. The signal disappeared again at Charles Circle, but jumped again as the vehicle made its way up Cambridge Street toward City Hall.

According to records kept by the city's Inspectional Services Department, Boston has some 600 cell sites, towers or buildings where antennas are attached. Nevertheless, there are blocks and blocks of dead spots.

Cell phone signals weaken the farther the phone is from an antenna, and each antenna can handle only so many signals, so companies must install more antennas to keep up with increasing numbers of phones. Dead spots can also occur in low spots in the topography or when large buildings block signals. None of the cell phone companies would say how many sites they own or have access to, saying they don't want their competitors to know.

The article goes on to explain that because not city or state agency regulates cell phone service, we don't have accurate data on dropped calls. 

Do you experience dropped calls; share your story with HearUsNow.org.