Many St. John residents rely solely on their cell phones and smart phones for not only telephone service, but internet access, email and more.
When cell phone service is not functioning quickly, or not functioning at all, it affects a lot more than simple phone calls.
Which is what has been occurring in Coral Bay for months. Residents from Upper Carolina to East End have been complaining about poor AT&T service, from a complete lack of signal to excruciatingly slow service.
“It’s been off and on for months at this point,” said one Coral Bay resident. “I’ve called and complained and got a $100 credit towards my bill. They know there is problem out here.”
AT&T officials are aware of the service problems in Coral Bay, explained one technician who asked to not be named.
The lone 3G tower in Coral Bay has been down since April 13 and is being rebuilt, according to the technician, who added that service should improve by November 2012.
“That tower went down on April 13 and we’re working on it,” he said. “We’re also building four more towers within a two mile radius of Coral Bay which will bring 4G service out there. That is supposed to be completed in November 2012, and will definitely improve service.”
“We’re working on it,” said the AT&T technician.
Cell phone service is further slowed during busy times on the island, the technician added.
“Where you live it’s a big tourist area and when you have a lot of people using the service, that slows things down,” he said. “You can only have so many people on the tower before it starts kicking people off.”
The new towers will be 4G capable and AT&T is upgrading the current 3G tower to 4G as well, the technician explained.
“With the new towers going in it will help and we’re starting to convert everything down there to 4G,” he said. “You have a lot of people down there with the new iPhones and iPads that are 4G and that fills up a lot of the 3G tower space.”
Coral Bay residents looking for relief before November can buy a micro-tower, the technician suggested.
The tower, available for $199, is basically a personal miniature cell phone tower, but works via the internet instead of relying on wireless phone service, according to the AT&T technician.
“It’s a great way to get service in low coverage areas, but the down side is that you have to have internet connection for it to work,” he said.
Residents can call AT&T at 1-800-331-0500 to report problems with their service.
