With a modernized campus providing amenities such as Wi-Fi and energy-efficient buildings, EC should take steps to improve communication on campus, namely the quality of the cell phone reception available.
There are numerous reasons as to why cell phone reception is substandard on campus, but the main reason is due to the construction of the buildings.
Some of the buildings on campus are constructed primarily out of large amounts of concrete and metal, along with windows that are designed to be energy efficient.
While these buildings benefit the campus in the sense that they help to lower energy costs, the materials tend to interfere with cell phone signals, making it difficult to send or receive calls in many of the building.
A study is to be conducted on campus with the intention of enhancing cell phone reception, which may ultimately lead to the installation of external antennas on campus, which will be beneficial in the long run.
The study will install modern cellular repeaters throughout the campus, to boost cell service.
Cellular repeaters are similar to the cellular broadcast towers used for broadcasting by the network providers in that they boost signal strength, but they are much smaller so that each building on campus have one installed.
If the repeater trial is successful, installing an external antenna on campus would be very beneficial, both for communications and as a source of revenue for the campus.
In the event of an emergency, a student on campus may be unreachable much of the time depending on their location, solely because of the lack of signal strength.
In the event of a family tragedy, or a natural disaster where cell phone reception would be vital, it would still be difficult to get reception throughout campus at this point in time.
An external antenna will make placing phone calls much easier, if such an event were to occur.
If a cell phone tower was to be installed, it would cost the campus an estimated $150,000 to build it, but it could bring in about $100,000 of annually from all different types of networks such as Verizon, Cingular and T-Mobile, according to the Chicagotribune.com, thus turning a profit within two years of installation.
Cell phone reception is more important to everyone more than we think. Installing repeaters to each building will boost cell phone reception which may eventually lead to a cell phone tower on campus, which would not only provide much needed revenue to the college in this economy, but could also prove to be invaluable in the event of an emergency.
