BostonHerald. Wireless hang-ups mount in Mass.: Cell firms eye solutions
by Joe Bartolotta
Monday, September 13, 1999
Ah, Massachusetts. Home to Harvard University, the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology and high-tech industry giants such as EMC
Corp. and Lycos Inc.
All that talent - yet cell phone service still stinks along Route 2
through Lincoln.
``It's the nature of the wireless game,' says Rick Pearl, a manager
with Sprint PCS in Waltham. ``There are always going to be some
places you can shore up.'
Where are these places? Lincoln is definitely one, admit industry
insiders. Cape Cod is another. Calls made in Belmont and Wellesley
can be riddled with static. So can those made along Route 3 in
Plymouth.
``Along Route 128, you almost name the town, and if American
Tower had the opportunity to negotiate with the municipality, we
would,' says Steven Moskowitz, marketing director for Boston-based
American Tower Corp., which owns or leases 7,100 wireless
communication towers in the nation.
Then, there's the Berkshires, where it's easier to list the good areas -
Pittsfield, North Adams and along the MassPike - than the bad ones,
thanks to the hilly terrain and a sparse population that doesn't create
enough demand for $500,000 towers.
Six wireless phone companies operate in Massachusetts. Each says
it's spending millions of dollars annually to improve or expand service
in the state, with the focus on Eastern Massachusetts.
Over the next year, for example, Bell Atlantic Mobile alone will spend
$200 million on new towers and antennas, software, signal testing
and property leases or purchases, says David Heverling, executive
director for the network of its Northeast region.
Wireless phone companies say they have two problems: siting and
demand. Some towns have tough zoning laws that make it difficult or
too expensive to site towers.
As a result, companies are hiding antennas in church steeples or
disguising them as trees. One antenna has been built into the left
field foul pole at Fenway Park.
The bigger problem, however, is demand for service. The price of cell
phone service has dropped 40 percent over the last year, driving up
use and attracting new customers as wireless companies struggle to
meet the needs of existing customers.
About 70 million Americans now use cell phones. At Bell Atlantic
Mobile, the customer base grew by 12 percent last year, but the
volume of calls grew by 80 percent, Heverling says.
Cell sites can only handle so many calls. That's why rush-hour callers
on Route 128 can be ``dropped' as they drive from one cell to
another that's at full capacity. (Of note, while rush hour is the
busiest calling period, 9 p.m. is catching up as people sign up for
plans with monthly allotments of low-cost or free evening minutes,
says Heverling.)
The sites that carry analog signals - the original system that enabled
wireless communication to explode in popularity 10 years ago - can
handle around 60 calls at once.
Digital signal transmission sites can handle up to 600 calls at once.
However, digital service is behind analog in deployment, since digital
systems couldn't be used until 1996 and it's taking time for wireless
providers to build their networks.
To find so-called dead spots, where wireless service is weak or calls
are often dropped, most wireless companies rely on customers to
report problem areas.
``We look at the demand in the area and, if the demand warrants it,
we'll do it,' said John Redman, senior communications manager at
Nextel in Bedford.
The companies also send employees around in cars specially equipped
with cell phones that repeatedly make calls. The signal strength and
drops are recorded by an on-board computer. The companies also
record the competition's results.
The Bell Atlantic Mobile test car's phones - one analog, one digital -
makes about 120 calls during a five-hour ride. Heverling says just 1-2
percent of the calls are dropped. The competition doesn't perform as
well, he says, but declined to release the results.
Sprint, meanwhile, also uses computers in its Waltham office to track
the number of calls handled at each cell site, Pearl says.
When a site regularly hits 70 percent of capacity, the company
studies whether another tower or antenna is needed.
Often, Sprint can expand the capacity by adding additional software
and hardware to the ``base transmitting station,' which is included
at every cell site, he said.
For now, the wireless companies see no letup in the need for cell
towers.
``It's like anything,' Pearl said. ``It's what the market demands.' |
