Cell Phone Dead Zones Can Become Deal Killers

The difference between life and death could depend on whether your cellular telephone is alive and well. And while that may be an extreme circumstance, business deals are certainly affected by the quality of service an individual’s cellular carrier provides.

Parts of Northwest Arkansas’ cell service have been questioned by a variety of cell phone users from all fields of work. And the most common point of complaint is an area on the east side of Fayetteville stretching from Zion Road to the intersection of Crossover Road and Mission Boulevard.

Nadine Yates of Lindsey & Associates said she knows when she heads east from the company’s headquarters on Joyce Boulevard that having clear connectivity on her cell phone is only a possibility.

“I can’t hardly talk [on the cell phone] near Paradise Valley, Old Missouri Road, [Arkansas Highway] 265 or even out 45 to Goshen,” Yates said. “The signal will be okay for a while, then it breaks up, and you just lose it.”

Other problem areas include the valley north of the Northwest Arkansas Mall and much of Interstate 540 between Fayetteville and Bella Vista.

A 1996 survey conducted by the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association found 70 percent of cell phone users were satisfied with their service. But in 2000, that figure was down to 53 percent. Consumers have hardly had a vehicle to voice their complaints. But Democratic Congressman Anthony Weiner of New York is pushing legislation that would allow users to file complaints with the Federal Communications Commission by pressing pound (#) FCC (332) on their cell phones. The FCC would be required to track bad service, with the results posted online. Consumers would then know where cell phone dead zones — also known as “black holes” or “gaps” — were before signing up with a carrier.

Yates, like thousands of Northwest Arkansas business people, uses her cell phone to make the most efficient use of her time. But the dreaded cell phone dead zones are causing as much frustration as the wireless business has given convenience.

“I was talking terms of a contract with a client out on 45 when, just as we were going over details, I lost him,” Yates recalled. “He was an executive, and I know his time is crucial. Well, I couldn’t call him back either. I had to turn around and go back where the signal had been good, and by then he was gone from the office.

“I didn’t reach him until the next day. He told me that he figured it was just my cell phone. I spent several hours worrying if he had just said ‘to heck with her.’ But if I have to sit at my desk and return messages, I miss out on appointments. I can return three messages on the way to an appointment.”

Towering Issue

Cell phone towers generally only cover about three miles before the signal is handed off to another tower site. Analog towers can only handle about 40 calls. Digital towers can handle anywhere from three to four times as many calls.

“The biggest problem is capacity issues,” said Mike Smith, president of Smith Two-Way Radio Inc. in Fayetteville. “People today use a phone almost like a two-way radio. They may be at a ball game and call a buddy and say, ‘Hey Joe, I’m over here at seat number six.'”

Southwestern Bell once had as many as 8,000 calls blocked per day on its Mount Sequoyah tower. Bell then found a site near the Fayetteville square that took the load off the Mount Sequoyah tower.

But what will happen now with Reynolds Razorback Stadium expanding to 72,000 seats? Those weekends in Fayetteville will be tough on cell phone users.

Alltel has 28 analog and 27 digital towers in Northwest Arkansas. Alltel, Southwestern Bell Cingular, SunCom and Sprint usually co-locate with each other, leasing and trading tower space. The newer carriers on the block, Nextel and Cricket, are currently on their own trying to grow their coverage in Northwest Arkansas.

Kelsey Mikel, network manager for Alltel in western Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma, said his company is trying to take care of those capacity issues first.

“This year we’ve turned up Farmington and Prairie Grove to digital, but we want to support their customers that still have analog,” Mikel said. “We’ve also turned up digital on 540 from West Fork to Winslow.”

Since Alltel already has a tower in Mountainburg, Mikel believes the coverage area should be strong all the way from the Missouri line to Interstate 40. He said Alltel is going to have a digital tower in Bella Vista in the next couple of months.

Cellular carriers are making concerted efforts to satisfy customers on both I-540 and U.S. Highway 412.

“Companies are wanting that Kansas City and Tulsa traffic coming and going from Northwest Arkansas,” said one industry official. “People pay a lot of money for roaming charges, and they want them to have a signal.”

Fayetteville Frustration

Mike Graham — director of network operations for Alltel in Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas — said newer towers cost about $400,000 each. But that’s a significant drop from the early days of cell phones when a tower cost about $1 million to erect.

One cell site can generate up to $40,000-$60,000 per month for carriers.

The early cell phones were actually stronger. The old “bag phones” were about three watts, where today’s analog phones average only about six-tenths of a watt. And the digital phones are even weaker. However, smaller is better in the eyes of most users.

“Typically, where you have the biggest problem is when you’re handed off,” Smith said. “If the tower it hands off to is busy, there’s no place to go, and it dumps you. Or, you’re handed off to a bad channel. Cell phones are not the most reliable course you’ve got. It’s handy. Hey, I’m in the business and I get frustrated.”

Carriers also get frustrated with Fayetteville’s tower ordinance, which actually allows no tower at all. It requires a monopole that can be no higher than 150 feet. It also must be disguised, painted a sky blue.

One cellular representative who asked not to be identified, said, “Companies sit and look at what they have to go through and say, ‘Let Fayetteville burn. We’ll go to Springdale and make our money.’ For a subcarrier, to build a site in Fayetteville is h, e, double-l. They would all like to add more sites here, but it may not be worth it.”

There are some problems that can hardly be avoided, such as the area around Mount Sequoyah. Industry officials say the up and down terrain leads to radio frequency problems. Residents successfully petitioned against a cellular tower planned for the corner of Township Street and Crossover Road in 1998.

Battling Black Holes

David Avery, communications staff manager at Alltel in Little Rock, said his company is constantly running drive tests to find dead zones.

“We went through same growing pains,” Graham said. “Now, we’ve got a 12- to 15-year jump on others in most cases. But, let me tell you, there’s not a wireless company in the U.S. or the world that can sit here and tell you they have a 100 percent coverage area in their market. You can’t get in every crack and crevice.”

Companies such as Motorola are making retro kits for vehicles that aid in getting through some of the dead zones.

Smith said even the two-way radios and pagers can’t claim 100 percent coverage.

“We tell the sheriff’s office we can cover 95 percent of Washington county,” Smith said. “There may be about 5 percent you can find out there like by the lake that are bluffs and nooks and crannies that may be tough to broadcast.”

Kathy Stocker, dispatch manager for the Fayetteville Police Department, said there is no way to tell how many 911 calls are dropped from cell phones because they’re dropped before being recorded.

The Washington County Sheriff’s Department uses a mixture of 175 mobile and portable two-way radio units. Smith said such units cost about $450 each.

A possible disaster was avoided in Maryland last year when a county deputy had his radio go out. He had been calling in a license plate from a car he was stopping on a rural road. The officer then tried calling in from a cell phone, but the signal was dropped. Fortunately, a fellow deputy had heard enough of the conversation to run the check from his car. He immediately raced to the scene, where he warned the other deputy that the driver was out on bail for firing shots out his window at a couple while stopped at a traffic light. A subsequent search of the vehicle found a gun and new bullet holes in the roof.