Woodlands cell service needs boost

Voice calling and messaging maps provided by Sprint, AT&T and T-Mobile show the areas with poorest service are generally throughout the Village of Sterling Ride, west of Kuykendahl and east of FM 2978. Much of the area is represented as "satisfactory," "fair," or "moderate," by carriers.

Coverage maps provided by Verizon did not provide a breakdown of quality of service among geographic regions.

Tim Hjort lives in May Valley in the Village of Sterling Ridge and has AT&T as his cell phone service provider. Hjort said he often has to go outside to make a phone call.

Natalia Arjona lives in Sterling Ridge and is a Realtor for ReMax in The Woodlands. She also said she has experienced poor cellular coverage, particularly when showing homes in the area.

"[Coverage] in Carlton Woods is horrible," she said. "It's known for having cell problems."

Bruce Tough, chairman of The Woodlands Township, said there are also coverage issues in and around Town Center.

"There are spots in Town Center in the Waterway area which are drop spots," he said. "Somehow it's difficult to get service there. That is one area that does not have coverage that we can certainly look at."

AT&T spokeswoman Lisa Glass said her company is actively exploring options to improve its service in Town Center and Sterling Ridge

"AT&T has several cell sites in the works to deliver new wireless infrastructure and increased coverage to the Town Center and Sterling Ridge areas of The Woodlands," she said. "Additional sites are also ready to go online this spring and fall, and more are planned in 2015, including areas east of I-45."

Coverage challenges

Among the factors that can lead to poor cellular service is dense populations using one or two towers.

"As more people use a network for high-bandwidth activities, a network can become congested," said Adrienne North, Sprint spokeswoman.

Heavily forested areas, such as is in many of the villages, also hinder cell coverage, Glass said.

"An abundance of trees, as well as dense populations, do affect cell service," she said. "These conditions often require the placement of more cell sites closer together in order to provide optimal service levels."

However, the problem of improving cell coverage in The Woodlands may not be as simple as adding more cell towers.

"Land has become very valuable in The Woodlands, the price of housing has gone up and land is becoming more and more scarce," Tough said.

Contractors who build cell towers typically require as much as 3 acres of land to install a new tower, Tough said. New towers built from the ground up in The Woodlands are not likely, since they often rise above tree lines and create a visual nuisance, Tough said.

"In trying to preserve the natural beauty of The Woodlands, a cell phone tower does not seem to fit the planning," Tough said.

Robert Heineman, director of planning for The Woodlands Development Company, said installing towers in residential neighborhoods is also unlikely.

"Everybody is interested in doing cell phone coverage, but we've also had some issues with viewing of cell towers from residential neighborhoods, so not every location is a good location."

Although new towers in residential areas of The Woodlands are unlikely to be built, there may be opportunities to install towers atop existing structures, Tough said.

Heineman said a new cell tower is planned to be installed on top of The Woodlands Waterway Marriott Hotel and Convention Center on Lake Robbins Drive, and a tower could be placed atop the new hotel planned for the Waterway Square district.

Mesh network

As new tower installation becomes more of a challenge in The Woodlands, local governments and cellular service providers are seeking alternative means to improve service. Powers said local entities are exploring installing a mesh network at some locations throughout The Woodlands.

Mesh networks, or distributed antenna systems, utilize smaller devices installed on things, such as utility poles, street lights and traffic signals. The devices communicate wirelessly with each other to provide a stronger cellular signal to nearby users.

"They are still going to be using cell towers and [the signal] comes down to the street for better blanket coverage," Powers said. "But because of all the trees, that may not work well."

Glass said AT&T is utilizing such a network in at least two locations in The Woodlands, and may be considering more.

"AT&T does use DAS technology in some areas and in fact has two such deployments in The Woodlands—The Woodlands Mall and the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion," she said. "We continue to explore all technically feasible options as we continue to improve our service and infrastructure in and around The Woodlands area."v