Senior Rod Fertig no longer has to brave the elements when he wants to get in touch with the folks back in Wyoming.
Before winter break, students could only dream of getting a cellular phone signal in the stone fortresses known as the Edens Quadrangle dormitories. A new tower constructed over winter break by Verizon Wireless, however, will allow some students to call home on their mobile phones from the comfort of their own rooms.
The tower, which doubles as a light fixture over Koskinen Stadium, went live Dec. 31 and will ensure continuous coverage on and around campus.
Jeffrey Potter, director of real estate administration at Duke, said that although cellular phone providers periodically approach the University with requests to put a tower on campus, those requests are seldom granted.
"We don't look with favor on cell towers," Potter said. "We can't just put up an ugly cell tower for the sake of putting up a tower. There has to be another reason."
In addition to funding the tower, Verizon will pay rent for use of University land. Two off-campus towers also provide coverage for parts of campus and surrounding areas.
Frank Cairon, Verizon's executive director of networks for the Carolinas, said the Koskinen site was chosen in response to complaints from campus customers and through the company's routine searches for areas that need additional or improved coverage.
The company realized there were spots on campus where signal strength was either weak or nonexistent, and approached the University with a request to construct a tower. Potter noted that although the tower went up in a matter of days, it took more than a year to negotiate the terms of the lease.
Cairon added that the company worked closely with the University in order to design a tower with which both parties would be satisfied.
"Verizon Wireless went to extra lengths and expenses to build a stealth [tower]," he said. "It does not appear as a cellular tower because we've tried to disguise it as a light pole fixture."
Currently, the tower serves only the Verizon network. Whether it may be used for other carriers is up to the University.
Ginny Cake, Duke's director of information technology, noted that the University works directly with Alltel exclusively as a cellular carrier. She added, however, that students under other carriers are welcome to express concerns about cellular needs.
"Historically, Duke only works to improve reception with the cellular vendor who has a contract agreement with Duke to provide beneficial pricing and services to the University as a whole... meaning faculty, staff and students. Currently, that vendor is Alltel and they are working to expand the coverage within buildings on campus," Cake wrote in an e-mail.
Although some Verizon customers said they have not registered a change in reception since returning from winter break, many said they immediately recognized the change.
"Before, the only place I was able to get reception was outside because I live in Edens," said Fertig, a Verizon customer. "Now I have plenty of reception there, even in my room, and also in the library and in parts of the Bryan Center as well."
Fertig said the improved reception will help reduce phone bills because he no longer has to use the more expensive calling card when he wants to call long distance from his dorm phone.
Customers of other carriers, such as Sprint PCS and AT&T Wireless, said they would welcome a similar change in reception for their carriers.
Sophomore Josefina Farra, who also lives in Edens but uses AT&T instead of Verizon, said she cannot get reception in any of the dorms on campus.
"If you're in your room and you get calls on your cell phone, then you don't even know [that you're getting a call]. You might not even get messages until a long time later," Farra said. "It can be really inconvenient."
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