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May 10, 2004

Dialing for dollars | Business cell phone users lament the sad state of improvement?

By Sara Donnelly
Fred Forsley is known by some at Shipyard Brewing Co. in Portland as Fred "Cell Phone" Forsley. And it's no wonder. Forsley, co-owner of Shipyard, estimates he spends about 80% of his work day on the road traveling from Kennebunk to Bar Harbor to Bangor visiting retail outlets and restaurants that sell his beer. To do his job, Forsley owns three different cell phones from three different carriers ˆ— Verizon, AT&T and Sprint ˆ— and rotates them according to his needs and location in the state.

Forsley used to be a more moderate subscriber, owning only two phones, each with 3,000-plus minute plans, but he found that coverage in Maine and New Hampshire was spotty enough in years past to warrant a third carrier. So, about six months ago, Forsley picked up a BlackBerry that, in addition to handling wireless e-mail, also offers wireless phone service.

Despite the recent purchase, Forsley says the wireless skies have cleared over the past few years. He sings the praises of Verizon ˆ— "great coverage" ˆ— and says Sprint, his primary carrier, has "gotten a lot better," especially when he travels out of state. A couple of years ago, Forsley says his wireless phone conversations would be interrupted, or "dropped," as close to Portland as Cape Elizabeth and Kennebunk. But times have changed.

"I think Maine has pretty good coverage," he says during a phone call from the road. "Seems like we're better than New Hampshire. When I'm traveling in New Hampshire, it seems to be a little tricky."

But some of Maine's
traveling business people might disagree. As Maine wireless companies and their subscribers ready themselves for the arrival of cell phone number portability on May 24, which will allow a customer to change carriers but keep the same phone number, plenty of cell phone users still complain about dropped calls en route from Portland to Augusta. And business-people north of the capitol often have to wrangle with coverage so unreliable it can render some cell phones virtually useless.

"The reality is cell phone service is at best spotty" in Maine, says Sam Zaitlin, chairman of the Maine Turnpike Authority and self-proclaimed "high-minute user."

Zaitlin, a Verizon subscriber, travels frequently from Biddeford to Augusta but switches from the turnpike to I-295 at the old Exit 9 (now Exit 52) because he says the coverage is so unreliable on the road formerly known as I-495. Finally, fed up with the dead spots, Zaitlin decided to do something about it. "It became clear to me how frustrating driving from South Portland to Augusta is," he says. "Along the artery, people should be able to conduct business."

In June 2003, Zaitlin gathered together a committee at the Turnpike Authority and sent letters to all seven of the wireless carriers that serve Maine, asking for better coverage along the 109-mile corridor. Currently, Sprint, U.S. Cellular, Unicel, AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile and Nextel hold wireless licenses for all or part of the state. In the letter, Zaitlin cited safety and economic health as two reasons phone companies should improve coverage: "More than 90% of all the products moving into or out of the state now travel over the turnpikeˆ… In today's world, ease of communications [and] the ability to 'be in touch' are essential components of economic vibrancy and enhance any state's business climate."

Rural versus urban
Zaitlin says Verizon was the only carrier to respond to the letter; representatives of the company arranged a meeting with him, but Zaitlin says little came of it. However, as a result of the MTA's campaign, the Legislature passed a bill in March that allows cell phone carriers to use MTA communications towers along the highway. According to Peter Merfeld, chief operations officer at MTA, U.S. Cellular and Sprint are looking into using the authority's York tower as a result of the bill.

Judging by industry numbers, it would seem we are living in a wireless world. According to the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association, mobile-phone users in the United States burned more than 800 billion minutes chatting on cell phones last year, up 30% from 2002. The number of U.S. wireless users is quickly approaching, and some industry analysts claim has already surpassed, the number of ground lines in the country. The Federal Communications Commission reports that in June 2003, 183 million traditional phone lines shuttled calls. CTIA reports that more than 148 million mobile phones were in use at that time.

And Mainers have followed the national trend. According to Albert Gervenack, director of the state Emergency Services Communication Bureau, the number of cell phones active in the state has grown over the past two years from 200,000 to more than 500,000; discounting multiple cell phone users like Forsley, that's nearly one phone for every two Mainers.

Gervenack says there are more than 1,000 tower sectors ˆ— cellular towers are three-sided, with each side known as a sector ˆ— in Maine carrying any mix of the seven carriers licensed to operate in the state. He adds that U.S. Cellular and Unicel are the largest carriers in the state, with the greatest coverage areas from the New Hampshire border all the way up to Fort Kent. If you live up north, you probably rely on one of these rural carriers for your cell phone coverage.

The other carriers traditionally have focused on the state's southern and central urban centers. A representative at AT&T Wireless says the company's coverage is solid from Portland to Augusta, especially with the new GSM (Global System Mobile) platform, which is a free upgrade for most subscribers. Verizon Wireless, which currently operates only in Androscoggin, Sagadahoc and Cumberland counties, recently obtained licenses for every other county except Aroostook and plans to have York County operational starting on Memorial Day. Sprint has focused on the greater Portland area, but its communications manager says 96% of the state population is covered by wireless roaming, free of charge.

But coverage maps and subscriber estimates don't tell the whole tale. Simply put, if there isn't a tower nearby to beam a signal to, your phone call is dead on arrival. And most major carriers like AT&T and Verizon have been slow to build multi-million dollar towers in rural markets like Aroostook and Piscataquis counties.

The satellite solution
Because the market is so competitive, carriers will not release information on the number of towers they've built in a given area. Gervenack, who has access to coverage information but is sworn to secrecy, says tower construction is market driven, meaning most towers will cluster around population centers. (Tower construction is also subject to municipal skirmishes with residents who want adequate cellular coverage, but object to what they see as unsightly towers in their neighborhood; such a debate is currently underway in Cape Elizabeth.) If you live and work in a rural area and you're lucky enough to have a tower nearby, you must also contend with interference from forestation and terrain, which can disrupt a cell phone signal. But carrier reps say the problems with Maine's rural coverage are not unique. Gervenack agrees.

"There's no state with fantastic coverage," he says. "Wherever you go."

So what's a hard-working northern Maine businessman to do? Why, buy a huge, hulking satellite phone strong enough to field a call from the moon.

Tim Varney is owner of Varney Insurance, based in Bangor. He spends half his time on the road traveling to branches in Aroostook County and says a cell phone up north does him little to no good, especially on Route 11 from Sherman to Fort Kent. A couple of years back, Varney bought himself a Global Star phone, which operates using a signal from a satellite rather than a tower. Varney says the phone is three times the size of a regular phone and looks like an original model Motorola from the dawn of the industry back in the 1980s. But what it lacks in beauty it makes up for in reliability.

"It just has to see the sky," says Varney, explaining that, unless he's in his car, his phone only works outside. Varney says he uses his satellite phone for approximately 75% of his calls from the road. "Before [with a cell phone], I had to wait to get to one of our offices and I'd be on the phone for a long time. I missed a lot of calls and then played phone tag."

Varney says he hears plenty of complaints from his Aroostook County colleagues about the spotty coverage up north, but only a few have gone the satellite phone route. Varney pays $250 a month for his Global Star phone, about five times the average monthly cell phone bill. But he says it's worth it. Varney also flies his own plane on the weekends and says even when he's camping in the outskirts of northern Maine, he can beam his satellite phone at the stars and call home to Bangor, clear as a bell.

"Normally, they don't even know I'm out of the office," he says.

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