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AT&T, Verizon Boost Signals To Fit Demand

5 min read

When a call or text message won’t go through — dialed or sent by a hospital patient in Little Rock or a pedestrian on the streets of Magnolia — AT&T and Verizon don’t want their networks to be the problem.

The companies have stepped up efforts in recent years to increase coverage and network speed for customers at the office and at concert venues and sporting events.

The projects are based on the idea that if a customer is encountering a problem making a phone call, sending messages or using data, then the telecom giants missed an opportunity to increase the system’s capabilities with improved infrastructure.

The technologies in each company’s toolbox are many and have recently included small cell towers (exactly what they sound like) and distributed antenna systems, which are similarly small versions of the better-known towers.

AT&T and Verizon have each have spent tens of millions of dollars building infrastructure in Arkansas. (How much? See end of article.)

Some high-profile projects in recent years have focused on improving signals at large venues, including Verizon Arena in North Little Rock and AT&T’s work at Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville.

Usage numbers compiled by AT&T at the stadium in Fayetteville highlight the need for such infrastructure upgrades where so many people gather, phones in hand. During the last football season, fans used about 3,538 GB of data, the equivalent of 10.1 million social media posts with photos. On average, fans used 590 GB of data per game, ranking the university seventh out of 54 stadiums with similar installations, according to the company.

Magnolia Gets a Boost

One of the most recent infrastructure projects — and the first of its kind for Verizon in Arkansas — is a small cell tower installation in Magnolia.

The project is unique in that the company rents tower space from the city, boosting signals for customers while providing revenue for the local government.

Leo Perreault, the executive director of network for Verizon’s south-central region, said the project had two goals: increase the capacity on the company’s network and improve its signal.

“Magnolia’s a busy area for us, even though it’s a small town. And if you learn anything by watching network trends, it’s that rural America uses a lot of data just like metro and urban areas. So we were looking at the Magnolia area as an opportunity to boost our capacity and test out some of these newer technologies,” Perreault said.

Perreault said the installation, which went online earlier this year, has been a “complete success” and that the company is in the planning stages of its next project.

Magnolia Mayor Parnell Vann said he’s heard nothing but good things about the small cell towers in the city, where the government is collecting more than $12,000 in annual lease payments from the company. He said the program has boosted coverage in downtown and hopes the program will later be expanded to reach dead zones in the county with additional towers.

“It’s been fantastic for us. I just wish I could get five or 10 more of them,” Vann said.

Hospitals Get Covered

Two projects completed by AT&T in recent years were aimed at improving coverage for patients and employees at two Little Rock hospitals.

Holly Naramore, who worked with AT&T on one of the projects at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, said employees soon noticed patchy coverage in the emergency department when the new patient tower opened in 2009.

“It wasn’t in the plans to do anything; it wasn’t in our funding to do anything, but we knew we were going to have problems,” said Naramore, who was then director of telecommunications for the campus.

Naramore said that AT&T first tried to adjust the existing antennas to improve coverage on the campus, but some issues persisted.

In 2013, the company unveiled its strategically placed antenna system, which covered about 1 million SF of the campus and noticeably improved coverage in former problem areas.

AT&T followed up the UAMS project with a similar installation at Baptist Health Medical Center in Little Rock.

Greg Crain, the vice president and administrator for Baptist, said the project, which was completed earlier this year, resulted in a noticeable difference in coverage.

“It helps folks when they’re in a stressful time,” Crain said. “You can imagine you being here in our hospital and needing to communicate with folks, and being able to talk to them. It’s a big deal.”

Tony Pietropola, lead network engineer for AT&T’s wireless network in Arkansas and Oklahoma, said installing such a system can sometimes be challenging, such as when a signal must be distributed down a hall from a central room that contains all the hardware. The company’s engineers sometimes have to get creative, but the signal has to be delivered one way or the other.

“The demand is there,” Pietropola said. “You see the growth of the smartphones inside these facilities, and they want to be able to do data wherever they are, work and play. Having these systems in there allows them to do that.”

Jan Collier, vice president and general manager for AT&T Arkansas and Oklahoma, said the company is continuing to look for additional projects and places to invest in the network. She declined to say specifically where the company was looking in Arkansas but said work on the network would continue.

“Over the last five to seven years, all of our networks have really experienced just an exponential amount of wireless data and what our customers are using their phones for,” Collier said. “So with the growth of the smartphone it’s just really driven how important it is to them and how important it is that we keep this technology moving and utilize all these technologies and these systems.”

AT&T, Verizon by the Numbers

AT&T Corp. spent $119 billion on capital expenditures from 2008-13 across the country, including nearly $800 million in Arkansas from 2010-13. In fiscal 2014, AT&T spent more than $21 billion on capital expenditures, up slightly from the year before, according to the company’s fourth-quarter earnings report.

Verizon Wireless has spent more than $100 billion on its wireless network since 2000, when the company was founded, including nearly $72 million in Arkansas in fiscal 2014.

In fiscal 2014, Verizon Wireless spent $10.5 billion on its nationwide wireless network, up from $9.4 billion the previous year, according to company earnings reports.

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