Cell-phone bar hopping

The Cambrian conducts an area-wide survey to find out where cell phone signal is the strongest

By Kathe Tanner and Bert Etling

E-Mail

Text Size:

tool goes here

Cell-phone coverage in Cambria and on the North Coast has been notoriously porous, drawing numerous complaints over a long period of time from residents, visitors and emergency responders.

A new cell antenna is expected to come online in early August. To answer

the seemingly eternal question— which cellular provider provides

Similar stories:

Phone pact cause for cell-abration
Phone pact cause for cell-abration

AT&T cell phone users finally are getting better reception — or any reception at all — in Cambria and other remote areas of San Luis Obispo County.
In fact, after years of complaints from local residents, emergency ser vice providers and tourists about Cambria being a “dead zone” with limited coverage, the village now appears to be in the early stages of enhanced wireless service.
The new AT&T agreements with Cellular One and T-Mobile allow AT&T customers to “roam” with phone calls in Cambria via Cellular One towers. No roaming fees will be added to their bills for the expanded ser vice, according to Deborah Rappaport, AT&T representative.
Viewpoint: Practicalities, not idealism, driving Cambria decision-making
Viewpoint: Practicalities, not idealism, driving Cambria decision-making

Television producer Stephen Pullin’s Viewpoint ( “What kind of place could, should Cambria be?” April 1, http://bit. ly/aJXUbJ) stated, “The baby boom generation wants to come to Cambria ... home owners will demand, up-to-date infrastructure.”
I presume the infrastructure he is referring to is cell phone service. Charter cable offers 6GB internet service and I have a 3MB at my home. Carriers will up that service as it is demanded.
I have all the water I choose to pay for and the apparent effects of global warming don’t include drought.
In Brief: Cambria among American’s Prettiest towns; AT&T wants cell antenna at old Air Force base; Advisory Council chairman resigns
In Brief: Cambria among American’s Prettiest towns; AT&T wants cell antenna at old Air Force base; Advisory Council chairman resigns

Cambria among ‘American’s Prettiest’
F or the second time in six months, an online Forbes financial site has rated Cambria as among “America's Prettiest Towns.”
A photo of a Cambria neighborhood — on an oceanfront cliff and laced with trees — leads the online story posted April 15 at http://bit. ly/aq3ter.
In Brief: Fundraiser Tuesday at the Sea Chest; Employee pensions on CCSD agenda; Salon collects hair for oil cleanup; Cell facility south of town clears hurdle
In Brief: Fundraiser Tuesday at the Sea Chest; Employee pensions on CCSD agenda; Salon collects hair for oil cleanup; Cell facility south of town clears hurdle

Fundraiser Tuesday at the Sea Chest
The public can dine on a plateful of calamari Tuesday, May 25, and help the wife of one of the Sea Chest Oyster Bar and Seafood Restaurant’s longtime employees battle metastatic cancer.
The meal is to be served from 5 to 9 p.m. at $20 per person.
Cell phone tower proposed for South County put on hold
Cell phone tower proposed for South County put on hold

A 60-foot tall fake eucalyptus tree proposed as a cell phone tower for the South County will not take root anytime soon, felled by an arcane discussion about whether it is allowed by current county regulations.
After discussing it at length, the Planning Commission said it needed more clarity about the guidelines before it could approve AT&T’s “unmanned wireless communication facility” at 2080 Los Berros Road, on the Bartleson Ranch, 250 feet west of Highway 101.
The proposal called for nine panel antennae mounted at a maximum height of 60 feet above grade on the faux eucalyptus tree. It also would include outbuildings.

the best coverage here — The Cambrian conducted a spot check of cell-phone reception at 31 sites in the Cambria and San Simeon area.

The results should give readers a record of how coverage was before the new antenna came on line. We plan to do another Verizon check afterwards to find out how coverage from that provider has changed.

For now, AT&T and Cellular One came out clearly superior, with at least one “bar” of signal strength at nearly all the sites. It figures the two came out with very close results, as AT&T reached an agreement in May with Cellular One to use its towers for “roaming.” T-Mobile has a similar agreement.

Assisting The Cambrian with the survey were Rick Auricchio of Cambria and his friend, Creed Erickson of Livermore. Their iPhones in hand, the two computer experts accompanied Staff Writer Kathe Tanner on the three-hour, 68-mile search for good cell reception.

No Sprint/Nextel phone was available for the survey; The Cambrian welcomes data from that and other providers. E-mail information to Cambrian@thetribunenews.com.

Cell tower sites

Current cellular tower sites, according to county and State Park records and other sources, include:

• Hearst Castle, two 95-foot-tall monopines on China Hill (a differ-

ent peak on the same hillside as the State Historical Landmark), with antennas for ATT (formerly Cingular), Verizon, Cellular One and Sprint (Nextel);

• Santa Rosa Catholic Church (inside the steeple), serving Cellular One and AT&T (roaming);

• Medical building, 2150 Main St., serving Cellular One, AT&T (roaming);

• Cambria Pines Lodge has a micro-cell repeater;

•Ragged Point Inn, serving Cellular One;

• Former Cambria Air Force Station, serving Cellular One; and

• Townsend ranch, next to former air force station, serving Verizon, Sprint, TMobile;

In the works

Additional cell towers are in various stages:

• A second site at Santa Rosa Catholic Church (in the recently heightened bell-tower) on Main Street will serve Verizon customers. Installation is underway, with completion expected by September, county planner Airlin Singewald said July 27.

• Old Cambria Air Force Station. An application for an AT&T antenna. The North Coast Advisory Council recommended approval and plans are “under review” at the county, Singewald said. “We should be able to get this project to hearing within a few months after we accept the application as complete,” which will depend on how long it takes AT&T to get additional information to the county.

• Plans have also been floated, but not filed, to add a cell site on the southeast end of Pine Knolls in the Pinewood Drive/Grove Street area overlooking Main Street.

Road testing cell phones

Some results of The Cambrian’s survey were surprising.

Two identical phones can get slightly different readings at the same time in the same place, according to where in the car the handler was sitting, how close the phone was to a window and to which tower the service was trying to connect.

And, as recently noted after introduction of a newer iPhone, how a phone is held can make a difference.

Readings varied because at each site, phones rarely locked on to one set of bars and stayed there.

Auricchio explained that, “because of AT&T's roaming agreement with Cellular One, an AT&T phone generally connects first with an AT&T tower, even if the signal is somewhat weak. After a few minutes, it may then roam to the stronger Cell- One tower.”

About comments

Reader comments on SanLuisObispo.com are the opinions of the writer, not The Tribune. If you see an objectionable comment, click the "report abuse" button below it. We will delete comments containing inappropriate links, obscenities, hate speech, and personal attacks. Flagrant or repeat violators will be banned. See more about comments here.

What you should know about comments on SanLuisObispo.com

SanLuisObispo.com is happy to provide a forum for reader interaction, discussion, feedback and reaction to our stories. However, we reserve the right to delete inappropriate comments or ban users who can't play nice. See our full terms of service here.

Here are some rules of the road:

Keep your comments civil. Don't insult one another or the subjects of our articles. If you think a comment violates our guidelines click the "report abuse" button. Responding to the comment will only encourage bad behavior.
Don't use profanities, vulgarities or hate speech. This is a general interest news site. Sometimes, there are children present. Don't say anything in a way you wouldn't want your own child to hear.
Do not attack other users; focus your comments on issues, not individuals.
Stay on topic. Only post comments relevant to the article at hand. If you want to discuss an issue with a specific user, click on his profile name and leave him a public message.
Do not copy and paste outside material into the comment box.
Don't repeat the same comment over and over. We heard you the first time.
Do not use the commenting system for advertising. That's spam and it isn't allowed.
Don't use all capital letters. That's akin to yelling and not appreciated by the audience.

You should also know that The Tribune does not screen comments before they are posted. You are more likely to see inappropriate comments before our staff does, so we ask that you click the "report abuse" button to submit those comments for moderator review. You also may notify us via email at webmaster@sanluisobispo.com. Note the headline on which the comment is made and tell us the profile name of the user who made the comment. Remember, comment moderation is subjective. You may find some material objectionable that we won't and vice versa.

If you submit a comment, the username of your account will appear along with it. Users cannot remove their own comments once they have submitted them, but you may ask our staff to retract one of your comments by sending an email to webmaster@sanluisobispo.com. Again, make sure you note the headline on which the comment is made and tell us your profile name.