Cell phone coverage in the area can often confound and confuse

Ever drop a call on Daniel Island?

 

Couldn’t connect to a carrier in Cainhoy?

 

Have you had that helpless feeling of losing a cell signal wishing you could, for old time’s sake, revel in slamming the phone down on the hook?

 

Whether you’re an AT&T fan, a T-Mobile lover or Verizon enthusiast, carrier loyalties are often put on hold any time cell reception happens to fizzle.

 

“We have had some extenuating circumstances on Daniel Island,” said Karen Schultz of Global Network & Technology Communications at Verizon.

 

This past June, social media posters reported frustrations of dropped calls, mid-conversation cutoffs and no service as Verizon crews were seen providing maintenance near Credit One Stadium.

 

“We temporarily powered down one of the cell sites serving the island, and while we did deploy a temporary mobile cell site in its place, coverage from that temporary mobile site did not provide the same performance as our permanent macro site,” Schultz said. “That permanent site was recently brought back online.”

 

Of course, Verizon is not alone.

 

Customers from all major wireless carriers, including AT&T and T-Mobile, have experienced some form of loss in reception in Charleston and across the country whether it’s due to thick building materials blocking a signal, a device’s distance from a cell tower, bad weather, maintenance slowdowns or just a lot of people looking at their phone screens at once.

 

The 2020 census reports more than 19,000 people living in the 29492 zip code with city officials at the Daniel Island Neighborhood Association meeting just last week anticipating that number to rocket up to 40,000 people over the next 10 to 15 years with the growth of the Cainhoy area.

 

Those types of numbers have wireless carriers continuing to add more cell tower antennas within the region to meet the demand of more customers.

 

 “We are working on plans for additional cell site deployments on Daniel Island throughout the next several years,” Shultz said, “And we will continue our 5G expansions, fiber capacity increases and bandwidth additions.”

 

The newest wireless standard after 4G, 5G stands for the 5th Generation mobile network. 

 

You’ll have to own a 5G phone first, but 5G networks may be able to handle as much as a 100 times more connected devices than 4G, up to 1 million devices per .38 square mile, according to Verizon.

 

And unlike the older 4G networks that rely on beaming signals from high, standalone towers, 5G technology can use smaller transmitters placed on utility poles, street lights and even building rooftops.

 

The Daniel Island Architectural Review Board recently had a request proposing a telecommunications platform on the roof of the New Realm Brewing Company at 880 Island Park Drive. 

 

“We approved cell antennas on top of the New Realm building,” said Mary Stuart Sutton, administrator of the Daniel Island Architectural Review Board.

 

Sutton said more cell sites may be on the way to Daniel Island as she noted a proposal for a pole antenna in Credit One Stadium was recently requested.

 

If you take a walk about a hundred yards from New Realm toward the corner of River Landing and Island Park Drives, a small AT&T cell tower site can also be spotted behind a chain-link fence.

 

Federal regulation only requires AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile and other carriers to register cell towers over 200 feet, so it’s possible there may be other smaller cell towers in plain sight.

 

A phone application called CellMapper is one of the many available that may clue in customers to specific streets and areas with the best wireless coverage. The app is not 100% accurate - as the information is curated from its users - but it might just provide an unofficial answer to the ubiquitous all-time-question, “Can you hear me now?”