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Storms challenged cell towers in Lima regionLIMA, Jul 06, 2012 (The Lima News - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Most people take their cell phone service for granted on a day-to-day basis. After Friday's storm knocked much of the region out of power, many were left with little to no cell phone reception as well. A Sprint Ohio spokesman, John Adams, confirmed the company experienced technical difficulties around the Lima area Friday into this week. "There is a cell site that's been impacted from the storm. It is not damage to the site itself, but disruption from the local wire line provider," Adams said. There was a "tower down" in the 45801 region, which covers the northern side of Lima, he said. Adams said that site did experience technical difficulties but is back up and running normally. Sprint wasn't the only cell phone provider affected by the storm. Verizon Wireless, another cell service powerhouse in Lima, struggled with its cell signals throughout Friday evening, said Laura Merritt, spokeswoman for Verizon. "When you've got high winds and flying debris, it could impact the signal's ability to cut a straight line," Merritt said. "So people may have seen a little bit of degradation because of that." Merritt said the period directly after the storm was one of chaos for the cell phone companies. "Also, we definitely saw a pretty significant increase during that time frame which was kind of like getting into rush hour over a typical Friday during the same window," Merrit said. "That increase was about 105 percent greater that Friday than it has been in previous weeks." There was also a slight bump in texting usage as well, Merritt said. She attributed this increase to people calling each other, trying to make sure everyone is safe and assessing damages. "So that's something which makes total sense because the first thing you want to do after you've just been through this kind of thing is call and make sure people who are important to you are okay and let them know you're okay," she said. Alltel Wireless also had problems during the storm, spokeswoman Cheryl Ringgold said. "We actually did have some outages, but they were in the leased towers that were down there," Ringgold said. "As of today, there are no issues, and we're back up and running." Another local cell phone provider, T-Mobile, said all its areas are now operating normally or near their normal state. "The T-Mobile network is operating at normal or near normal levels in all areas affected," said Juan Cornejo, a T-Mobile spokesman. Verizon stores have been operating on generators locally, Merritt said, and doing their best to reach out to residents without power in the community. "We have a suggestion for folks. We're offering a service, free of charge, no matter what service provider you have, if you come in, we'll charge your phone for you," Merritt said. "We've had one store that's been treating this service like a coat check. You drop your phone off, take a number, come back and get it, and your phone is charged and ready to go." You can comment on this story at www.LimaOhio.com. ___ (c)2012 The Lima News (Lima, Ohio) Visit The Lima News (Lima, Ohio) at www.limaohio.com Distributed by MCT Information Services |