Dead zones: Cell service lags at big box stores, customers say
Podcast Episode
Kyle Geissler talks with Janesville Gazette business editor Jim Leute about cell phone 'dead zones' in retail stores.
JANESVILLE — What loaf of bread?
What light bulb for the bathroom vanity?
The ones you would have picked up if you'd gotten the cell phone call while you were at the grocery story and the home improvement store.
Make no mistake, retailers want you to buy that bread and bulb, but studies are showing that stores often create cell phone dead zones and lost sales.
"Retailers around the world have this problem, basically because of the construction of their buildings with metal roofs and thick concrete walls," said Howard Melamed, president and CEO of CellAntenna, a Florida company that helps retailers avoid dropped calls in their stores.
While some retailers have cell reception trouble, others don't, and the issue of dropped calls is sometimes more of a function of the distance to the carrier's tower than it is the construction of the building.
An informal survey of some of Janesville's big box retailers and grocery stores showed mixed results.
At a couple of Janesville grocery stores, a U.S. Cellular customer lost calls when he got more than 20 feet from the store's front wall. The same thing happened at another big box retailer.
But the same caller had no problem anywhere in the new Menards Mega Store, a 250,000-square-foot block and metal store that opened in Janesville in May.
So what did Menards' engineers and architects do to avoid dropped cell calls?
Nothing, said a company spokesman.
"I don't know what you would do," Jeff Abbott said.
"Two cans and a string," Melamed said in a gross oversimplification of the systems his company is selling around the world.
Basically, CellAntenna's solution is antennas inside and outside of the building connected by cabling.
"Dropped calls are a problem for retailers who spend millions and millions of dollars studying store traffic patterns, impulse buying tendencies and customers' time over target," he said. "In these stores, a customer tries to use his phone, has a problem and then he does what?
"He walks to the front of the store, maybe even outside it and then either leaves or goes back in."
Melamed isn't surprised that construction managers aren't aware of the problem, and he agrees that sometimes one carrier's service will work in a store while another's won't.
"Engineers and architects don't build it into the equation because engineers and architects aren't typically at the forefront of technology," he said. "The carriers don't feel like it's their responsibility."
That's why business is booming globally for Melamed, who also has offices in the United Kingdom and Poland.
"The carriers can't solve it, so companies turn to people like us," he said, adding that CellAntenna also sells systems that do just the opposite: jam cell phone signals.
Jane Blain Gilbertson, who owns Blain Supply with her brother, Robert Blain, is familiar with dropped calls.
"I know that when I'm in the middle of our Janesville store, my service kicks out and that I have to go to apparel or over to the auto service center to get it to work," she said. "But maybe that's just because of my service."
Blain's Farm & Fleet just opened its 34th store, a 114,500-square-foot facility in Verona.
While the store's designers thought about many things—including how to make it environmentally friendly—they didn't give any thought to cell phone reception, Blain Gilbertson said.
During a visit to the Verona store last week, Blain Gilbertson said her cell service worked fine and that dropped calls seemed to be more of a function of carriers and distances to towers than building materials.
Sep 17, 2008 at 5:05 p.m.
Suggest removal
hannah, have you won anything yet?
Sep 16, 2008 at 5:42 a.m.
Suggest removal
I agree with the phone brand. I always had Nokia phones w/ Us Cellular but I wanted a razor last time around. I had ALOT better reception with Nokia than I do with the Razor. Also before cell phone companies add cutesy features like mp3 players, cameras, internet etc. MAKE A PHONE THAT GETS RECEPTION FIRST!!! Thanks.
Sep 15, 2008 at 11:42 p.m.
Suggest removal
Whatitdo: No, I didn't ignore my family to catch that one advertisement on TV. In fact, I pulled the plug (for good!) on my TV on 09/12/01. It was the day after "911" and I figured if I kept the TV on that I would never make it through graduate school. (I started classes the week before "911".) Anyway, the TV has remained off, I finished my graduate degree on schedule, trashed my cell phone and have lived happily ever after. My comment about families is that I often see the kids and the parents all using individual cell phones to chat with different people instead of enjoying each other's company. I was not kidding in that I have often seen mothers driving SUVs with two kids in the car and all three of them are talking on their individual cell phones. I've also had co-workers who appear to go through physical and emotional withdrawal if asked by the boss to turn off their cell phones while on the clock. I have seen people put aside customers to answer their cell phones. I have seen/heard people answer cell phones in church, public restrooms (while on the toilet!), restaurants (even the fancy ones), while in line at the store, the bank, the gas station and the DMV. I have nothing against using them in an emergency, but it seems like some people can't handle being alone for five seconds so they are always on their cell phone. If you ever wait for somebody that's in a store, it is funny how many people you see pull into a parking place while on their cell phone, then walk into the store still on the phone, then come back out with a cart filled with groceries and still on the darn phone! I wonder if it is the same frickin' call?! I am not criticizing anyone; I just think human behavior is really bizarre when it comes to cell phones. Thank you.
Sep 15, 2008 at 10:26 p.m.
Suggest removal
Hey US Cellular customers here is one to try, stop into one of the 100s of US Cellular stores and have them update your internal software. I did it today at Pick-N-Save and my Razor phone is now %1000 better for reception inside and out, the woman at US Cellular said they have had A few problems lately with tower updates and peoples phones not interacting with those updates. Hopefully this will help some of you out as I'm sure Sprint and Verizon require updates from time to time also, On A side note for those of you that think this is A big hassle it took about 2 minutes for the update to be done and it gave me some time to check out some of the new phones out there now. WOW!!!!!
Sep 15, 2008 at 7:56 p.m.
Suggest removal
Who is Ozzy?
Sep 15, 2008 at 7:55 p.m.
Suggest removal
yes i am hannah:) thats why theyre called 'courtesy' mode on a lot of phones....:)
Sep 15, 2008 at 6:20 p.m.
Suggest removal
im guilty of taking a call when its there, but PLLEEEEAAAASSSSEEE put yo phone on vibrate. NO ONE wants to hear, or thinks yer kewl for havin some crazy ringer on yo phone...
Sep 15, 2008 at 6:07 p.m.
Suggest removal
Sarah b not immpressive how you hold high regard the vaule of tv commercials.Were you ignoring your family watching commercials? What's your thinking that cell phones have made family,s more apart? I disagree.
Sep 15, 2008 at 4:38 p.m.
Suggest removal
The one thing more annoying than cell phones in public is the pack of crying whiners who complain constantly about others' cell phone use. THEIR drone is far more incessant and omnipresent than anyone's phone.
Sep 15, 2008 at 3:42 p.m.
Suggest removal
OLDER than what, hannah? OLDER than you?
I agree with the rest of your post though, and your line "MOVE AWAY FROM THE NUTS PLEASE" is destined to become a modern classic. {:>)
Sep 15, 2008 at 2:51 p.m.
Suggest removal
Why would ever need to talk on a phone while in a store. Make your calls before you leave your car or better yet, before you leave home. It is just plain rude to be talking on a phone while out in public.
Sep 15, 2008 at 2:30 p.m.
Suggest removal
Maybe if I had a cell phone I would feel differently, but I hate the stupid things and am tired of being stuck behind shoppers, drivers, walkers, runners, bikers, etc., using the things. I certainly think they should be banned while one is driving. There used to be a TV ad about talking to your kids about important issues while you have them "captured" in the family car. I have to laugh at it now because many times I have seen Mom and the kids driving down the street and each one on a different cell phone! How incredibly silly. Unless they are talking with each other on the cell phones, these gadgets have driven loved ones even further apart. But guess what? I just remembered that I am required to get a fricking cell phone for an upcoming temporary job ... UGH!!!!! I surrender.
Sep 15, 2008 at 2:24 p.m.
Suggest removal
I have some questions:
1) Why is this news?
2) Why is this a problem?
3) Who cares?
Sep 15, 2008 at 1:44 p.m.
Suggest removal
Well said Mark....people think they are so important that they must be on their cell phone all the time, thereby being rude to everyone else around them, because they aren't paying attention to what they are doing. Sometimes I get a call while at a store, but I never talk more than a minute or 2. There is nothing I hate more than having to wait in line at the checkout forever because the yoyo in front of me is so busy talking on their cell that they can't unload more than 1 item at a time from their cart.
Sep 15, 2008 at 1:03 p.m.
Suggest removal
When I'm at Woodman's I can get shoddy but usable-in-a-pinch reception. But it's funny, because every time I squat down to look at a lower shelf, my phone beeps to signal the service as it's lost and then regained when I stand up.
.
I don't get the "forefront of technology" thing. Don't architects ever use cell phones and go on site? Wouldn't they have been among the first professionals to benefit? I think the "not my job" thing is more to blame.
Sep 15, 2008 at 1:02 p.m.
Suggest removal
All cell phones should be blocked in any store. If you do not know why you are there, go home!
I'm sick of listening to people using their "outside" voice when blabbing on and on while walking through a store.
Sep 15, 2008 at 12:45 p.m.
Suggest removal
Oh no.... dropped cell calls in the middle of a big-box store!!
It'll just be like living in the 1990's again! What a nightmare!!!
Sep 15, 2008 at 12:18 p.m.
Suggest removal
fed and jt are correct. its the TYPE and MODEL of the phone that give the most problems. Never had a dropped call with my old Nokias (ones with the 1" tall antennae) when inside the "big box stores". Friends new LG flip phone drops even when in his own house. Then again his new LG is everything BUT a phone. What do people expect when they are putting everything BUT a sink in these silly things.
Sep 15, 2008 at 11:57 a.m.
Suggest removal
I have US Cellular and have had no problems in Woodman's or any other store for that matter. Must be related to the type of phone.
Sep 15, 2008 at 10:51 a.m.
Suggest removal
Could it also have something to do with your brand and model of phone as well as your carrier?
Sep 15, 2008 at 9:24 a.m.
Suggest removal
US Cellular, too. But the only place I have trouble is near the meat cases at Woodman's.
Sep 15, 2008 at 9:15 a.m.
Suggest removal
I have US Cellular and I lose service in EVERY building I enter.
Before you post a comment, consider this:
Note: GazetteXtra.com does not condone or review every comment. Read more in our User Policy AgreementPost Comment
Commenting requires registration.