Cell phone service on campus

It may be difficult to find college students without cell phones, but at UVU, students aren't always as connected as they would like to be.

Though being connected to one’s cell phone 24/7 is not ideal, emergencies occur and being able to have quick access to a cell phone is almost a necessity in today’s world.

To conduct an experiment, four students on campus, each with different cell phone providers, visited major buildings on the main campus to test their signal strength.

Though there were factors such as the specific cell phone and what floors of the building they were on, results showed that students with T-Mobile had overall better reception on the main campus, while AT&T appeared to struggle the most.

Currently, Verizon has the most coverage in Orem with AT&T having the least amount in the Orem area. However, even Verizon was not able to stand up to the challenge of getting good reception on the UVU campus.

Verizon’s coverage seems to be strongest in the Midwest and weakest on the West Coast, according to the site’s coverage map. In Utah, the coverage is half and half, with Orem included in the good half.

According to the AT&T coverage map, AT&T’s presence is stronger from the Midwest to the East Coast, leaving many areas on the West Coast with little or no coverage at all.

T-Mobile, the campus winner, has overall scarce coverage in Utah, but according to their coverage map, they seem to have almost excellent coverage in Orem, revealing no dead spots.

Sprint’s coverage map shows that they provide overall good coverage throughout the United States. Upon further inspection, however, Sprint coverage is lacking in Utah with its strongest signal only along I-15.

All the providers say that within coverage areas, things can still affect a customer’s reception like foliage, weather conditions, traffic volume, obstructions, your device, proximity to buildings, terrain and construction.

All four coverage maps claim to have coverage at the school’s address, but the experiment, frustrations from students around campus and a few of the signal hindering factors listed on their websites, reception within the school’s walls reveal an entirely different story.

By Vanessa Perkins – News Editor