Improved Cell Phone Reception

[rvadude85]

Yesterday I visited the park for the first time this season. It was a very busy day for the park given the beautiful weather and the fact that the park hosted a large group of high school band members. I was very pleasantly surprised to see that my Verizon iPhone had very strong coverage in areas like the Festhaus and inside the new Battle for Eire ride where I had very little coverage before. I saw on top of the Marco Polo restaurant in Italy where new small cell antennas added. I assume they were added in other areas of the park as well over the offseason. Anyone that has been to the park on a busy night probably has had issues with cell reception due to capacity issues, regardless of which carrier you subscribe to.

Very happy to see that the park addressed this issue and worked with wireless providers to add this equipment inside the park!

 

[warfelg]

If only they did a KD and had park wide free WiFi. Maybe they could start it as a member perk pilot program.

 

[Nicole]

I can't use the WiFi at KD, because the pop-up ads make browsing too frustrating.

 

[Mushroom]

Still, I do enjoy the free WiFi on non-browser apps such as Messenger, since there are no pop-up ads. It's really frustrating to not be able to contact friends and family at Busch because Messenger can't connect to the Internet.

 

[lightninlady]

It was always so frustrating not having any service in the EITA building, I definitely noticed the improvement when i rode BfE!

 

[Nicole]

I will say that I had great coverage all day today at BGW, including inside the BfE building. I agree that the service has improved noticeably.

 

[Lord Robert]

Hurrah for better reception!

 

[horsesboy]

I will be currious to see how well it works on packed days that is when I usually have problems.

 

[WDWRLD]

I will be currious to see how well it works on packed days that is when I usually have problems.

I would say Saturday was a high numbers day with a large majority or high school aged kids who are heavy social media app users. Speed tests in the Ireland, England and FoF were in the good range. I also had good connections inside the Festhaus since the beginning of the season.
I also have had excellent use of wifi at KD this season, again inside the park im almost exclusively using apps but did check in here a could times on various days through the web browser and not once have I seen a pop up.

 

[Adam]

Glad to see they have done something to improve the cell reception in the park - it was god awful in some spots before.  It is likely that the boost in cell service is from the project they filed for last July.

DAS - Distributed Antenna System Ref: C-0008-2017, SUP-0022-2003. Proposal is for the installation of DAS antennas network at locations around the park (on rooftops and in enclosures) and addition of central HUB shelter to administration of park property

Source: JCC CaseTrak

 

[WDWRLD]

I believe one is on top of the arcade in Germany and I bet the reason for the addition to the gift shop roof in front of Josephines Ice Cream is to hide the small site.

 

[jjofriends]

This is encouraging to hear. The cell service at Busch was always a bit frustrating, especially if you needed the internet for anything, and that lack of service served to drain batteries faster as well. Looking forward to seeing how it is in my next trip in a few weeks.

 

[belsaas]

I can corroborate better LTE reception in the park. I did not have any issues sending Snaps out, which was a problem previously, especially in Das Festhaus.

 

[whanna]

I had three bars on VZW in the bier hause this weekend, where I normally have 0-1. A very noticable improvement. I did not test in many areas of the park, but I definitely did there (Untappd).

 

[acrossdapark]

There are also some antennas mounted within Ireland, you can see them from the skyride. Welcome improvement but still need to work on a mesh wireless system.

 

[BGWPinGuy]

I believe one is on top of the arcade in Germany and I bet the reason for the addition to the gift shop roof in front of Josephines Ice Cream is to hide the small site.

Maybe even the reason for putting that roof facade on the Vesuvius grill food stand beside Pompeii.

 

[Zimmy]

Personally I am glad to see more cell service and not a wireless mesh. Public WiFi is just plain insecure not to mention a drain on battery life. I suppose if I were walking around with my laptop or a tablet I might feel differently but I don't usually carry those. (not that I haven't)

 

[Zachary]

WiFi uses far less power than mobile network connectivity. Just because of that, WiFi will always be my preference.

 

[whanna]

WiFi uses far less power than mobile network connectivity. Just because of that, WiFi will always be my preference.

Concur.
However if you are NOT going to connect to WiFi, or the signal is weak, you are better off turning off WiFi to conserve battery; your phone will otherwise constantly search for a known network to connect with. If the signal is weak or non-existent, the phone will turn up the power on the radio to try to find a good signal.
Same is true with cell networks, FWIW.

 

[acrossdapark]

Personally I am glad to see more cell service and not a wireless mesh.  Public WiFi is just plain insecure not to mention a drain on battery life.  I suppose if I were walking around with my laptop or a tablet I might feel differently but I don't usually carry those.  (not that I haven't)

TBH I don't connect to any untrusted wireless without my encrypted VPN.

However back haul and bandwidthing reasons, Wireless is both cheap and easy to deploy as well as more centralized control with out having to depend on a third-party(s) to provide access, especially in light of multiple wireless carriers with competing spectrum technologies.