By Danny YadronThe Daily Northwestern

Like most Northwestern students, Medill freshman Naadia Owens was cold Saturday night. But when lack of a cell phone caused her to make the frostbitten trek from Chapin Hall to the Technological Institute for nothing, she felt an extra chill.

Owens was one of several Northwestern Verizon Wireless customers who felt abandoned in Saturday’s subzero wind chills. A failed radio signal at an undisclosed nearby wireless site caused students to lose service from about 2:30 to 7 p.m., a Verizon spokeswoman said.

Owens said she was on her way to the South Asian Student Alliance’s 2007 show, “A Family Affair.” But not being able to call a friend kept her from learning the performance was at Cahn Auditorium and not the Ryan Family Auditorium at Tech. She barely made the show.

“If we had been able to call people it definitely would have made our lives much easier,” Owens said.

The broken radio was replaced that evening, Verizon public relations representative Carolyn Schamberger said.

Usually, the service from Verizon’s radios overlaps, so when one of Verizon’s radios fails, customers’ calls are picked up by another nearby cell site. A typical site provides service for a three-mile radius, Schamberger said.

But there are gaps, she said.

At least part of NU’s Evanston campus is too far from other cell sites in the area to pick up customers calls in an event like Saturday’s.

Students reported not being able to make or receive calls as well as text messages for the majority of Saturday, with occasional moments of coverage.

“It was just kind of annoying and I was just trying to get in touch with my parents all day, ” Owens said. “One minute it would be fine and you could make the call, the next it would just say, ‘Calling.'”

Verizon technicians apparently were aware of the problem before receiving any customer complaints and had restored service by 7 p.m., Schamberger said.

But some students, such as Weinberg and Music freshman Joseph Baldwin, reported being left without cell phone service until as late as 11 p.m.

“I was needing to communicate with my friends to go to Chicago but couldn’t,” Baldwin said.

Baldwin and his friends decided to cancel the night in the city by the time he could finally use his phone.

Schamberger could not give a reason for why there was such a delay. She also encouraged customers to call customer service in the event of such problems.

Reach Danny Yadron at [email protected].