Sprint PCS cell phone users on campus should now have better reception with the recent installation of two cell phone antennae panels on top of the Technological Institute.
Sprint installed the 3-foot panels near Tech’s roof around Thanksgiving, said Patricia Todus, Information Technology associate vice president.
The new panels have improved reception within the area spanning north and south from Ingleside Place to Simpson Street and east and west from the Lakefill to Ridge Avenue, said Radio Shack manager Jim Gernady, whose store sells Sprint phones.
Before the panel was installed, some students said they suffered chronic reception problems with their Sprint cell phones.
“Prior to the installation of the tower, there were complaints because the signals didn’t pick up that well,” Gernady said.
A Sprint spokesman could not be reached for comment Monday.
Weinberg freshman Carrie Kozimor said her Sprint cell phone “didn’t work up until right before Thanksgiving Break anywhere on campus and almost (didn’t work) off campus.”
Kozimor was forced to search for obscure areas on campus to get her phone to work. Eventually, she found one semi-reliable spot.
“It seemed to work when I sat on one step of a certain fraternity, so I had to go there to make calls,” she said.
Speech sophomore Heather Hansen, a Sprint phone owner, said her roommate last year had serious problems with her Sprint phone.
“She had to hang out of the window to make calls,” Hansen said.
To install the reception-improving panels, Sprint had to submit a request to Northwestern.
“What happens in general for all of our installations is the cell phone companies approach us and they pay an annual rental fee to the university (for the company) to install their cell phone sites on the campus,” said Ron Nayler, associate vice president for facilities management.
All installation requests must be approved by the university’s Rooftop Committee. The committee is composed of three people from Facilities Management, two from Information Technology and one from the budget office.
“We (Facilities Management) participate as part of a group for reviewing the installation sites to make sure they are OK aesthetically, in their technical aspect and whether they will disrupt research going on in the building,” Nayler said.
The November installation of Sprint’s antennae at NU’s Evanston Campus is only the latest in a series of similar installations that began in 1993, Todus said.
Since then, seven companies including Ameritech, AT&T Wireless and Metrocom have installed cell phone reception-improving devices on nine sites on NU’s Evanston and Chicago campuses.
Some students who use different cell phone carriers said they haven’t experienced reception difficulties.
Weinberg freshman Bart Chwalisz and Education junior Lauren Eslicker, who both use AT&T service, both said they had no reception problems with their cell phones at NU.
Verizon subscriber Kimberly Culpepper, a Speech junior, said her reception at NU has been excellent since she got her phone in August.
Some Sprint-using students said the Sprint antennae panels seem to have improved the reception on campus.
Kozimor said her phone is working fine now, after a few months of poor reception.
Since Hansen’s phone was activated a month-and-a-half ago, she said the reception “has been really good on campus.”
