Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Nextel- If it’s red, it’s dead.

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 23 Feb 2003 00:01:56 -0500

Callers ID those spots where cell phones give out

Jim Shelton, Register Staff February 16, 2003

Earle Allen Jr. has a cardinal rule when dealing with cell phones.

If it’s red, it’s dead.

That’s right. The red light on Allen’s Nextel cell tells him — with alarming frequency —
to forget about making or receiving phone calls until he clears the umpteenth "dead zone."

"The thing goes, BLINK!, and that’s it," laments Allen, a medical livery driver from
Wallingford. He logs 250 to 300 miles a day on the roads and depends on his cell phone to
communicate with his dispatcher.

"It’s an incredible pain," Allen says. "I’ve had problems in Westbrook. … I’ve had
problems in front of West Haven Town Hall. … North Branford is a real pain. I’ve gotten so
used to it that as soon as I get to North Branford, I turn the phone off. It’s not worth
the aggravation."

Yes, as any die-hard cell phoner knows, there’s an invisible minefield that demolishes
intimate conversations and wrecks crucial sales calls. Depending on the situation, it can
be a minor irritant or a major frustration.

It’s the "dead zone" network, a nebulous, ever-changing phenomenon that drops phone calls
quicker than a speed dialer at a telemarketing convention.

"It’s a huge issue," says Carl Hilliard, president of Wireless Consumers Alliance, a
consumer rights group based in California. "There are millions of these spots. It’s like a
map of Swiss cheese."

Connecticut has 1.5 million cell phone users. Their ranks have swelled to include teens,
senior citizens, business types and emergency services personnel.

Each of them, at one time or another, has experienced the unique annoyance of being unable
to get a phone signal at a key moment.

"I see it on the road all the time," Allen says. "People banging their phone against the
steering wheel. You can see their mouths, going, ‘hello? hello?’"

HOUSE CALLS

Out in the West Woods area of Hamden, free-lance artist Paul Kirchner doesn’t have to hop
in his car to find a dead zone. There’s one encircling his house.

"The zone extends in some directions for about a mile," Kirchner says. "But it’s not
consistent. Sometimes I can get a signal if I stand out in my driveway."

He’s had his Verizon calling plan for a couple of years, he says. With three kids at home,
it can be tough getting phone time on his land line, so he needs his cell for business
calls.

It would’ve come in handy during some of this winter’s weather, too.

"In one of the snowstorms, we lost our regular phone service for a day," Kirchner says.
"You would think that would be no problem since you have a cell phone, but we were back to
square one."

Hey, at least he has a driveway to try. That’s more than Tom Horrigan of Branford has. He
lives in the Short Beach neighborhood and says his Audiovox digital phone gets almost no
signal until he gets to Route 1.

"If I have a real emergency at home, I would not depend on my cell phone to come through,"
Horrigan explains.

He knows this from experience. Several years ago, a small house fire sent Horrigan racing
out of his home with his cell phone, frantically dialing for help.

"As I watched the flames and burning embers pour out of the top of my chimney onto my
roof, I repeatedly tried to use the cell phone," he recalls. "No signal! I finally banged
on a neighbor’s door and called from there. I didn’t lose the house, but I wasted valuable
time trying to use the cell phone."

PRACTICAL COVERAGE

Yet things have certainly come a long way since the time Ron Clark got involved.

Clark, a wireless communications consultant from Madison, has been in the industry for
more than 20 years.

"We’ve gone from having pockets of coverage in the early ‘80s to only pockets without
coverage," he says. "It’s been transformed.

"In the old days of the land line, we used the phone to call a place and find a person,"
he says. "Today, it’s inconsequential where you’re calling. You’re calling the person. You
don’t care where they are."

Sometimes, it seems, they’re hanging out of the side of their car or wandering to remote
corners of buildings to hold onto a signal.

"I know a Realtor in Madison who had two or three cell phones," Clark says. "If he
couldn’t make a call on one of them, he’d switch over to the other. He looked like he was
wearing six-guns."

Clark says some of the worst dead zones in Southern Connecticut include the Merritt
Parkway in Fairfield County, Route 80 east of East Haven, sections of Route 1 in Guilford
and Route 79 in Madison, going up to Durham.

Several factors play into the problem, he notes. There’s the topography of individual
spots, for example — hills and valleys that make wireless coverage difficult.

Other problems include signal shielding of some buildings, particularly steel buildings;
the availability of places to put antennas and cell towers; and even occasional
interference by summer foliage.

"These are all obstacles to overcome," Clark says. "Will we ever achieve 100 percent
coverage? Certainly not. But practical coverage? Yes."

CREATING MENTAL MAPS

In Orange, real estate agent Denise Mirto says the key to dealing with dead zones is
keeping them in perspective.

"It’s not the end of the world, losing somebody on the phone," she laughs. "It’s
definitely improved. It’s not as bad as it used to be."

She bought her first cell phone in the 1980s, and spent years losing calls at places such
as the West Rock Tunnel on the Wilbur Cross Parkway. These days, her Verizon signal gets
her through the tunnel just fine, but there are still some tricky spots.

The most troublesome ones for Mirto include Wheeler Farms Road in Orange, Route 15 near
the Milford-Orange line, and the corner of Grassy Hill Road and Old Grassy Hill Road. "You
get to the point where you just know where the dead spots are gonna be," she says.

But consumer advocate Hilliard says callers shouldn’t have to devise their own mental maps
of dead zones.

His group is pushing to make it mandatory for all cell phone providers to offer detailed
maps with even the smallest dead zones included. The group also advocates that consumers
be able to tap into other providers’ networks if they hit a dead zone within their own
provider’s network.

In any event, Hilliard urges people to resolve their personal dead zone issues as soon as
they join a calling system.

"Our strong advice is to go everywhere you think you’ll need to use it," he says. "If
you’re not satisfied, take the phone back."

A CALL FOR SAFETY

Most cell phone users choose to resign themselves to the idea of dead zones.

In Allen’s case, he’ll just hope he doesn’t get hurt.

"I remember once, there was a cell phone rep who came out to investigate complaints about
dropped calls," Allen says. "We were at an address on Mix Avenue in Hamden, and she was on
her phone, and she backed her car into mine.

"I said, ‘What were you thinking?’ and she looked at her phone and said, ‘I can’t reach
anybody!’

"I said, ‘Hey, I could’ve told you that.’"

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=7070802&BRD=1281&PAG=461&dept_id=7558&rfi=6

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