November 01, 2004

City Cell Service Still Sucks

In the latest survey about city cellphone service, it seems that more areas are being tagged as crappy for reception. Though the data was collected from 311 complaints and only “meant for consumer education” (“not a scientific survey”), the NY Post reports that the information indicates that Chelsea, Greenwich Village, and SoHo are added to the list of Midtown and Wall Street as bad cellphone zones. One possibility is that the concentraion of cellphone antennaes (2150 in Manhattan alone; another 1100 in the other boroughs) may be causing interference with each other. Another is just the presence of tall buildings. However, with these other neighborhoods with lower bulidings and zoning restrictions, Gothamist guesses that overly gentrified neighborhoods are not conducive to service. Lower East Side and parts of Brooklyn - you’re next!

The City’s study on cellphone usability from last year.