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Ohio State Walking Tour: Visit the Oval, Mirror Lake, Fisher College, Ohio Stadium and RPAC on the first day of fall 2024 classes on the Columbus campus
While the Buckeyes battle it out on the field at Ohio Stadium, some fans face a challenge of their own on game day: finding decent cell reception.
As they navigate a sea of scarlet and gray amid excitement and chaos, more than 100,000 fans rely on their cell phones throughout game day. Whether trying to call a friend to find out where to attend a barbecue near the stadium, checking their cell phone tickets to get into the stadium, sending photos from the stadium or downloading rideshare apps to get home after the game, many have complained for years about spotty cell reception in and around the Shoe.
Verizon, which plans and designs cellular coverage in the state of Ohio, wants to improve it.
“This happens all the time. We’re constantly reviewing and analyzing our usage data,” says Heidi Reiter, vice president of network engineering at Verizon.
Ohio’s mobile phone landscape
As part of its role on campus, telecommunications company Verizon evaluates and adjusts its coverage areas throughout the year to best meet Ohio State’s wireless needs, including serving the tens of thousands of students, faculty, staff, sports fans and other visitors who traverse campus and use their devices every day.
While a rural college campus may only need an average 150-foot-tall macro cell tower to meet its coverage and capacity needs, Ohio State requires a complex system of 17 small cell towers, 58 grade buildings, and numerous 150-foot-tall cell towers to ensure seamless communications across campus.
When problem areas arise, Verizon also offers solutions for factors such as the intensity of use in a particular area and the impact of a building’s infrastructure on service. Reiter said construction activity on campus can impact cell service, meaning engineers then have to make adjustments.
Verizon is a “neutral host,” meaning its distributed antenna system (DAS) is designed to pick up and amplify signals from multiple wireless carriers, such as AT&T and T-Mobile. Most of the campus infrastructure is Verizon’s, and the company coordinates its work with other providers.
Housed in a nondescript building near Carmenton, Ohio State’s west campus innovation district, Verizon’s DAS transmits radio signals from cell towers across campus.
Tony Folden, senior engineer for specialty engineering project management at Verizon, called the DAS “the brains of the operation.” The recently renovated building is filled with racks of transmitter units and still has plenty of room to grow.
Some high-traffic areas on campus, such as Ohio Stadium and Schottenstein Center, have their own DAS instead of relying on cell towers. Ohio Stadium has 48 dedicated units and Schott has 26.
Other buildings, such as older classrooms and dormitories, will also receive their own DAS because cell tower signals cannot penetrate inside.
More “Small Cells” around Ohio Stadium are expected to improve service
This year, Verizon is working to increase both capacity (bandwidth available to users) and coverage (the physical reach of cellular coverage).
If you walk around the Ohio State University campus with a keen eye, you might notice a few strange black poles. At first glance, you might mistake them for a lamp post or a power pole. But these poles actually serve as miniature cell towers.
While the campus still uses macro towers about 150 feet tall, Reiter said these “small cells” serve as additional support for certain high-use coverage areas such as Ohio Stadium.
Mazher Iqbal, senior director of network performance at Verizon, compared the various cell towers to highways. Macro towers are like long, two-lane highways. They are efficient and cover a large distance, but too much traffic can quickly lead to congestion. Small cells are like short, twenty-lane highways. They can carry more users but have a smaller coverage area.
Ohio Stadium also has 1,600 antennas in and around the stadium that send signals to its own DAS, said David Lloyd, senior project manager in Ohio State’s Office of Technology and Digital Innovation. These antennas provide another layer of capacity and make it easier for fans to make phone calls and send text messages while inside the stadium.
Before the Buckeyes’ first home game on Saturday, Verizon plans to increase the number of small cell towers around the stadium from two to five. More towers would improve the strength of cell reception, Reiter said.
Still, Reiter said the extent of the changes visitors will experience is somewhat unpredictable.
“It’s hard to quantify because it varies depending on the size of the crowd and the number of Verizon customers,” she said.
Keeping the campus connected
Ohio State is expecting a historic freshman class this fall, with university officials anticipating a total of more than 9,000 new students.
More students mean more devices, and more devices mean a greater need for strong cellular reception.
In addition to macro towers and small cells, 58 buildings on campus have oDAS nodeswhich stands for Outdoor Distributed Antenna System. These mini cell towers transmit their data to the university’s main DAS on West Campus.
Equestrian said most people don’t even notice the cell towers “because they’re probably looking at their phones.”“
Each building on Ohio State University’s medical campus also has its own internal DAS network. Verizon’s systems will go live on the first six floors of Ohio State University’s new $1.9 billion hospital tower early next year.
“It’s important that hospitals have good cell coverage,” Reiter said. “Doctors need to call each other, but a woman who has just given birth isn’t going to run around outside to get good cell reception.”
Sheridan Hendrix is a higher education reporter for The Columbus Dispatch. Sign up for Extra Credit, her education newsletter, here..
@sheridan120
