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In today’s world, our phones are nothing less than our lifelines to the world. We use them to stay in touch with family and friends, we use them for work, we use them for weather and banking and Scrabble and Facebook and listening to music and picking a decent local seafood place for dinner. We revere them as distractions, yet we rely on them in emergencies.
But as is the case with all technology, as our dependence grows, so does our frustration. It’s hardly a secret that Hilton Head Island and Bluffton are notoriously spotty when it comes to phone service — as just about anyone who’s tried to maintain a conversation while driving over a bridge can attest. But while there’s no shortage of complaints about service on the island, there is confusion about where the exact problems are — and what, if anything, can be done to address them.
What’s the problem?
Cell phone towers are built by a number of different companies, which then lease the space to carriers. When you make a call, the radio signal from your phone hunts down a tower’s base antenna, which covers an area of approximately 10 miles. As you travel, your radio signal is transferred from one tower to the next.
“Generally, different carriers occupy space on different towers,” said Andrew Rein, vice president/general manager for residential sales and marketing at Hargray. “Inevitably, there may be better coverage in one place than in another, depending on your carrier.”
As you might suspect, the taller the tower, the stronger the signal. But Hilton Head, of course, is known for its aesthetic and zoning regulations, which impact the number and height of available towers (and can be trouble, especially since signals generally don’t penetrate trees). Some communities have made special efforts to blend towers in with their environments; Shipyard Plantation, for instance, disguises its as a flagpole. According to town officials, there are 14 towers taller than 150 feet on the island.
Hilton Head Town Manager Steve Riley says in addition to the towers, there are cellular antennae on top of many buildings on the island, as well as mini-antenna poles strung around various areas, particularly in Hilton Head Plantation.
Can you hear me now?
Still — and this will be the most obvious sentence you’ll read all day — there are certain places on the island that can be very problematic. Keeping a connection while on the bridges to or from Hilton Head is often impossible. Some communities seem particularly hard hit when it comes to good service, especially parts of Hilton Head Plantation, Port Royal Plantation, Spanish Wells and Sea Pines. That, officials say, impacts everything from customer satisfaction to the sale of real estate.
“Excellent cell phone service is imperative to new generations of buyers,” said Peter Kristan, general manager of Hilton Head Plantation. “We’re putting pressure on AT&T and Verizon to step up to the plate, but neither one will even admit there are problems with their service.”
In the meantime, Kristan said, Hilton Head Plantation’s management is encouraging residents to get involved.
“We’re on a pilgrimage … a quest to get residents to call and complain,” he said. “We’re the biggest community on this island and we are not sitting down on this.”
For its part, AT&T does sell a device called the 3G MicroCell, which is designed to amplify close-range wireless service in residences and businesses. And while that helped Bluffton resident Ann Gordon Graham, it didn’t come without a cost. “Our house is on the second row from the May River, so we had to buy the MicroCell from AT&T.” She paid $150 for it (with a $100 rebate), but the device adds a fee of $20 per month to her bill.
“We’re self-employed, so we just didn’t have a choice. We have to have phone service,” she said.
The safety issue
One of Hilton Head’s most pressing mobile-related challenges is improving service for public safety reasons. “People love to boat here,” Graham said, “and it’s scary to think about being in trouble on the water and not having any reception.”
Hilton Head Fire Chief Lavarn Lucas says he’s also concerned about cell reception and his department’s ability to respond to emergencies quickly. He said that the location of a call made from a landline will immediately show up on a dispatcher’s computer, but that’s not the case with 911 calls made from many mobile phones.
The problem, he said, is that in an emergency most mobile phones don’t utilize their built-in GPS features, turning instead to what’s called the “triangulation” method. That means that when a call is made, three cell phone towers will receive the signal, and the technology will determine the caller’s location by measuring the overlapping coverage area and the phone signal’s distance from each tower.
That, of course, leaves room for error. Lucas says if a 911 call is made from the south end, for instance, the signal would need to bounce off three towers. But to the south is Daufuskie Island and to the east is the Atlantic Ocean — neither of which has significant cell phone towers. That complicates the triangulation, and the result is that the location, as provided by the cell phone carrier, may be off by hundreds or thousands of feet — or, in some cases, miles.
Other factors can contribute to the misidentification of a caller’s location, including a mobile phone’s age. Older phones that don’t meet current FCC design specifications can also result is misdirected 911 calls.
“It’s challenging for the dispatchers to locate where you are,” says Lucas. “We get calls that belong to the Beaufort County dispatch center and the Ridgeland dispatch center. We’ve even gotten calls from Charleston and Savannah.
“Callers have to remain calm so that we can get them to the correct dispatch. They have to tell the dispatcher what city or town they are in. If they don’t, that just delays the dispatcher’s ability to process the call, and that slows down fire and rescue.”
Where does it hurt?
Gary and Julie McWilliams have traveled to Hilton Head from Evanston, Ill., for years They love the restaurants, the golf courses and the myriad amenities. They do not love their AT&T service, or lack thereof, at their timeshare.
“We have to go outside to get good reception,” said Gary. “It’s especially frustrating when it’s dark and I have to use a flashlight to take notes because I’m trying to work outside.”
But it’s not just tourists who are finding themselves frustrated. Indeed, Hilton Head officials and residents are becoming increasingly concerned that poor service is affecting the community’s ability to attract tourists and businesses. Initial results of a recent survey of second homeowners by the Hilton Head Island-Bluffton Chamber Commerce and USCB shows that almost 40 percent say that cell phone service is “extremely important” and another 40 percent say it’s “important” when choosing a vacation spot.
“We’ve heard from meeting planners and visitors that spotty service is a big issue for them,” said Susan Thomas, the chamber’s Visitor & Convention Bureau vice president. “Whether people are traveling here for business or come here for a meeting, they need to stay connected. Wireless access is a fundamental need. This is a huge challenge for this area.”
What’s next?
Hope is on the horizon.
Hilton Head Mayor Drew Laughlin has appointed telecommunications specialist and former mayoral hopeful Jim Collett to head a committee charged with examining the wireless issue. That committee, which includes several local telecommunications experts, recently brought on board the Seattle-based company RootMetrics, which offers an app (available at www.rootmetrics.com)that allows cell phone users to test their reception and measure their carrier’s performance.
So far, about 20 people have signed up to help with tracking efforts at www.hiltonheadcell.com, but Collett said anyone can pitch in. The more people testing their service, the more data the committee has when approaching carriers. “This information is based on real phones and real people,” he said.
“More than 2 million people come here every year, and they have cells,” he continued. “If they don’t work, the carrier looks bad and we look bad.”Such efforts have already attracted the attention of Verizon. Company executives met recently with the mayor, committee members and others to figure out ways to improve cell service in the area. “They are making commitments to improve service and we’re finding ways to expedite the process of building towers on the island,” said Collett.
He added that the committee was expected to meet with AT&T executives in late August. It’s also interviewing tower companies, investigating new technologies and surveying island residents.
Collett said failing to address the wireless issue will hurt the community in the long run. “In today’s world, people often only need a computer and phone to work anywhere. But if they can’t get decent cell service, they’re not going to come here,” he said.
One plan for improved service is already underway. A 140-foot-tall cell tower on Marshland Road was approved by Town Council in March; construction by American Tower Corp. is expected to begin in fall. The tower will serve AT&T customers and Hilton Head Fire & Rescue Station 7, said Lucas, and other providers, such as Sprint/Nextel, Verizon and Hargray could also buy space on the tower. The tower is designed to improve AT&T reception in some areas of Spanish Wells and Indigo Run.
But until a full-time, island-wide fix is made, timeshare owner McWilliams remains wary but hopeful. “We love our timeshare. We love Hilton Head Island. We get so much enjoyment out of coming here, but we sure wish they could fix this cell phone problem.”
Illustration by Morgan Eddington
