The safety side of South End’s dead zone

Reliable cell phone reception is hard to come by, from East Park Avenue and Camden Road down to East Tremont Avenue. Traveling across East Boulevard, four bars drop to one, but they reappear after you pass Hawkins Street, at least for this Verizon customer.

• It’s Charlotte’s Bermuda Triangle, where texts won’t send, calls are dropped and apps refuse to refresh.
• South End CLT, an extension of Charlotte Center City Partners, even has a dedicated section on its website’s FAQs, with ways to contact Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile/Sprint.

Why it matters: While a poor connection is annoying, especially in a booming neighborhood like South End, safety implications are a bigger problem.

• What if you run into car trouble or have a medical emergency?
• What happens when you can’t call a ride, text someone to let them know you’re leaving or let them know you made it safely to your destination?
• It’s unsettling to even think about.

Yes, but: Despite its lack of stable service, South End’s dead zone is a well-lit and well-traveled area.

By the numbers: Records show 89 crimes took place this January in zip code 28203, and roughly 25 fell within the dead zone.

• CMPD could not be reached for a comment.

Separately, the City of Charlotte has been working with cell phone carriers to add devices to light poles to improve reception across Charlotte, per Queen City News. 

• Camden Gallery told me they installed signal boosters in 2019 for Verizon and AT&T.

No one seems to have concrete answers why these issues persist or how to fix them, let alone what’s causing them.

• “A service gap in the middle of a major city like Charlotte doesn’t help instill confidence in Verizon,” Verizon Support’s Peter, whose last name is not provide for security purposes, told me.
• He also said that Verizon’s coverage map doesn’t show a service gap there.
• Verizon Support — I communicated with Peter, Alicia and Tyler — also suggested something may be wrong with my phone.

Those left swimming in this sea of complaints and questions on Reddit and Twitter have a theory, or passionate thoughts at the very least.

• “I have Verizon too, and it’s funny you mention that Fuel because I remember sitting there being like welp f*** me I guess I’ll sit here and stare the wall,” a Reddit user posted. 
• “Craft beer blocks cell signals,” another said. 
• WCNC’s Hunter Sáenz was the voice of reason, with a dash of humor, on Twitter: “With how much South End is booming you’d think by now the area would have good cell service. I don’t get it. Can we fix it. (Let’s see if this tweet even gets sent 😂).”

The big picture: It’s likely not the fault of your phone. It’s just bad reception; but who is responsible for fixing that? Does it fall to carriers to ensure complete coverage or the city to provide sufficient infrastructure? Perhaps both.

• The city told Axios in a statement they “have no control or knowledge around the cellular network throughout the City or ‘dead zones,'” and their, “only role with the cellular providers/utility companies is to permit their intended installations in a manner that matches our guidelines.”
• “Network capacity/coverage is not something within our regulatory control so it is not contemplated within our guidelines,” the city statement concluded.