Students and faculty at Shands at UF and the Academic Health Center will now have more bars in more places.
UF Information Technology announced Tuesday that installation of the distributed antenna system is underway for Shands at UF and the Academic Health Center. The system was installed in Ben Hill Griffin Stadium last Fall.
Nine buildings are included in the project. Shands at UF General Services Building, Shands at UF Main Building, Shands Cancer Hospital, the Human Development Building, the Academic Research Building, Stetson Medical Science Building, the Biomedical Sciences Building, the Basic Sciences Building and the Dental Science Building should see improved cell phone reception by Oct. 1.
Additional buildings at Shands and the Academic Health Center are in the design process and are expected to be completed by the end of this year.
UFIT Communications Manager Tracy Gale said cell phone strength is important for families with patients at Shands.
“The services from Shands and the academic science center really impact lives,” she said.
Gale explained that designing an infrastructure to support cell phone coverage carriers like AT&T, Verizon and Sprint, which have different operating systems, can take months to finish. She said once installation is complete, it takes two to three months to perfect signal coverage.
Other areas on campus are getting a wireless facelift as well. UFIT Telecommunications Director John Madey said the Stephen C. O’Connell Center’s distributed antenna system is part of the center’s renovation and expansion project. There are 32 other buildings on campus, including the Reitz Union and the libraries, that are in the design phase for an antenna system.
The first distributed antenna system was installed with 270 antennas in place at the stadium in time for UF’s first home game, Madey said. These 3- to 4-inch antennas are placed between crevices and under stadium seats to maximize the volume of calls.
“When the original DAS for The Swamp was completed last summer, you don’t really know how good the coverage is until you get 80,000 people in there,” Gale said.
Students can expect to have more signal strength in the stadium next football season.
Verizon is updating its system infrastructure so its services can be added to the system already in the stadium. AT&T is also adding 4G, or LTE, coverage this summer.
“Whoever your provider is, next Fall, when you send pictures from The Swamp, chances are you’re going to have a really easy time with it,” Gale said.
Contact Colleen Wright at cwright@alligator.org.
