Hello, you're in the dead zone Region's cellphone users still have problems making, keeping connections
By Matt Viser, Globe Staff | January 29, 2006
You're driving along, talking on your phone. It could be something as mundane as trying to determine which cereal to pick up at the grocery store or as crucial as trying to seal a business deal.
Then come the unexplained silences, the fragments of talk, and the sudden realization that the other person's just not there.
You've been trapped. In a cellphone dead zone.
Even as cellular phones have become necessities of modern life and companies have tried to improve service, it's still possible to find yourself in a dead zone in Boston's western suburbs, according to residents and a survey by Globe West.
"Our area is full of cellphone dead spots," said Stephanie Price, a
33-year-old Cingular Wireless subscriber who lives in the Waban section of Newton. "There is literally no way to drive to my house and not drop a call."To examine how reliably the phones work these days, a Globe West reporter took comparable phones from the four companies serving Massachusetts -- Cingular Wireless, Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile USA, and Verizon Wireless -- on a 150-mile tour of the area.
Calls were made on each phone from the same location within a one-minute period, and a record was kept of whether calls went through clearly on the first try, had an obviously weak connection, or failed to connect after three attempts.
A total of 480 phone calls were made from 120 locations ranging from Newton to Boylston and from Norfolk to Lincoln.
Sixty-two of the calls, or about 13 percent, didn't connect on the first try.