Many students could not tell you their landline dorm numbers. With cell phone services constantly luring their customers with even bigger and better deals, it is rare not to find students walking through campus, sitting in their dorm or taking a study break to connect with those both near and far using their cell phones.
Although many rely so heavily on the use of their cell phones, students often receive sub par service from various providers.
“This is a no coverage zone [for Cingular],” said sophomore Annie Lascoe, who recently switched from Cingular to Verizon. “I got coverage on Forsyth but no coverage in Rutledge, only on my balcony.”
Others clearly have had different experiences.
“[I have] Cingular now and it’s better than Verizon was but it’s still not great,” said junior Margaux Buck, who lives off campus. “It’s fine off campus – it’s only on campus that I have issues.”
Buck noted that she does not get service anywhere close to Mallinckrodt.
All major providers, however, claim that the St. Louis area and, more specifically, the Washington University campus, should get some of the best coverage with calls bouncing from many towers.
“There’s a ton of towers we’re putting in just this year,” said Tara Traycoff, a spokesperson for Cingular. “We’re spending 50-some million dollars in the St. Louis area to build additional towers.”
Sprint is also developing new plans to improve service in St. Louis. In June 2005, they established a new network in St. Louis known as EV-DO, which was proposed to improve service.
“That has really made the St. Louis markets robust for us,” said Miles McMillan, the midwest media relations manager for Sprint Nextel. According to McMillan, these were mostly set up in large metropolitan areas.
In addition, a press release from Sprint declared that it would be putting in more than $41 million to improve service in St. Louis.
Not everyone on campus is getting the best service that all of the companies promise.
“I can’t really talk on my phone in dorms a lot. It cuts out a lot,” said sophomore Charlene Lai, who uses Verizon. “I’ve never had any problems [outside] but I’ve never gotten full service at school. When I go home there are more bars then I’ve ever had here.”
Lai’s Verizon service has been consistently poor since changing.
She intends to switch providers as soon as possible.
Lai had hoped to be able to use T-Mobile, which students claim have the best service on campus, but she still ran into problems.
“I know T-Mobile is really great on campus, but it doesn’t work at all at home. Verizon was the next best choice [at the time],” said Lai.
Lascoe, however, felt that her Verizon service was fairly effective throughout campus.
“It works wonderfully,” said Lascoe. “It works pretty much everywhere.”
Lascoe did run in to problems in changing her number when she switched away from Cingular. Saint Louis stores could only provide her with the Saint Louis area code, so her parents had to send her a new phone from their city.
Some companies, such as Sprint, try to provide support to those having difficulties.
“Sprint has an incredible tool. It’s called employees helping customers,” said McMillan. In general, he said that when customers are having problems, they provide a lot of information such as where and when the problem spots occur.
The information is then forwarded to a team of qualified people, “who specifically look at that area and get back to the person who has issued that problem.”
In the end, cell phone service for the University appears to be hit or miss.
Calls may be dropped, crackle with interference or be clear depending on whether the call is dialed from main campus or the South 40.