Throughout the past few seasons, Gators football fans have learned to cope with fumbles, incomplete passes and bad cellphone reception.
But the situation in the Swamp is changing.
UF recently installed a system of more than 300 antennas in Ben Hill Griffin Stadium that works to triangulate cellphone signals and pinpoint users’ calls, said John Madey, manager of telecommunications and network infrastructure for UF Information Technology.
The stadium’s system has finished installation, but Madey said AT&T is still working to improve it.
The Distributed Antenna System improves reception, call quality and data rates within the stadium during home football games.
During home games, AT&T engineers watch the cellphone traffic and make adjustments in real time to maximize coverage. A syncing issue is currently preventing full optimization, Madey said.
The project does not cost UF anything, Madey said. AT&T is providing the funding for the campus-wide project. It was awarded the roughly $15 million contract in May 2011. Leading carriers like Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile are expected to join in next year.
Until then, only AT&T users will see the benefits of the new system, Madey said.
The only time the system can be accurately tested is during a home football game, and with technical tweaks still to be made, he said it won’t be fully functional for another two to three home games.
“Yes, reception is better,” Madey said. “But we expect it to get even better.”
Psychology junior Bahar Pourshariati noticed the update at the Bowling Green game Sept. 1.
The 19-year-old was surprised when her text message sent successfully and quickly.
“Reception in the stadium had always been so bad,” Pourshariati said. “I didn’t expect to be able to text until at least the third quarter.”
According to Elias Eldayrie, UF chief information officer, Shands at UF and its neighboring academic health center is the next phase of the project.
Buildings on campus like the Stephen C. O’Connell Center, Reitz Union and Library West are due to install similar systems in the next two years.
“Our goal is to have a minimum of three bars of cellphone service anywhere on campus,” Eldayrie said.
