According to Assistant Director of Systems, Network and Telecommunications Stephen Judycki, who publicized and conducted the survey, 50 percent of the students and 70 percent of the staff responded, which he said "should provide enough data to work with." 1,117 students and 485 staff responded to the survey, which concluded before Thanksgiving Break. IT sent out a second e-mail reminder shortly before the survey's conclusion. This reminder led to 400 more responses.
The data analyzed so far has confirmed IT's expectations. "It may come as no surprise to nearly 1,100 Cingular and Verizon customers that Cingular and Verizon represent the most used carriers on campus," said Judycki. With Cingular and Verizon carriers representing such a large number of students and staff, the College's next goal is to ensure service for those carriers.
Judycki described the next step which is currently in progress and is planned to be completed after Interterm. "Building-specific data, by carrier, will be plotted on campus maps in an attempt to correlate signal strength with building elevations and proximity to cell towers, and to note the effect of obstructions between buildings and cell towers," he said. The College hopes to determine the impact of the Cingular antenna that was installed on the smokestack of the College heating plant last summer. A second antenna, which will benefit Verizon customers, will be installed in the spring. This antenna will be constructed last, since the smokestack can only support two.
If the effect of the Verizon antenna is anything like the effect of the Cingular antenna, students are likely to see improvement in their service. Since the installation of the antenna, Cingular customers have noticed improved reception in most campus locations.
Even campus buildings with usually bad cell phone reception, such as James and Stearns Halls, get nearly full reception on Cingular phones. "Cingular has a tower right next to Moore, so it works perfectly everywhere I've used it," said Saaqib Zaman '08. "Last year it was terrible, but this year I haven't had any problems."
Verizon customers would certainly benefit from such a boost in the quality of their reception. Lisa Smith '09 says that her Verizon service "stinks to high heaven." She reported poor reception both outdoors and in Appleton Hall. "It often doesn't ring and I don't get the voicemails for hours at a time," she said.
Margaret Ramsey '07, a Resident Counselor (RC) in James, noted that reception for Verizon was especially bad in the new dorm. "There's some speculation that the poor service in the new dorms is because of the structure," she said. Ramsey expressed hope that the survey gathered enough building-specific data to address reception problems in certain buildings, stating that her lack of reception in the dorm presented many problems. "As an RC I can give examples of times when it actually is very problematic not to have good reception," she said, "such as talking to Campus Police or something like that which I have to do more than the average student."
Some Verizon customers were satisfied with their service. Professor of French Leah Hewitt observed no major problems with her Verizon service, reporting that "when the technical equipment is not working in my classroom, I [use it to] call IT or the media center."
Professor of Russian Jane Taubman also reported no problems with her Verizon service, though she admitted that, unlike the majority of students at Amherst, she does not use her phone very frequently while on campus. "I very seldom use my cell phone on campus, since I have a campus phone in my office," she said.
Other wireless companies such as Sprint and T-Mobile are much less popular on campus. Unfortunately, however, the implementation of a solution similar to those for Cingular or Verizon seems unlikely. Sprint service on campus is poor, with most campus buildings getting little or no reception, and T-Mobile service has also drawn numerous complaints.
Nonetheless, students appreciated the concern of the IT department, and hoped that the survey results will lead to improved cell phone service. "It was very nice of them to think to ask those questions," said Smith.
When the results of the survey are completed after Interterm, the IT department will begin to decide what decisions can be made to improve cellphone service. "We'll have a better sense of the next steps once the survey data has been fully analyzed," said Judycki.