When Steve Collins was on his cell phone Tuesday talking to a reporter about cell coverage in Keauhou, the call was dropped twice.
That’s just how it’s been for Verizon customers in makai areas of Keauhou over the past few weeks, following the decommissioning of a tower on the Keauhou Beach Hotel. Kamehameha Schools officials are planning on demolishing the building, and Verizon has placed a mobile tower across the street.
But that weaker, temporary signal has only left surrounding residents frustrated.
Like other residents of the Country Club Villas and nearby developments, Collins has a one-bar signal when he’s lucky, can’t make calls indoors, misses and drops calls. Before the loss of the tower, it was common to have three or four bars.
“Cell service is so taken for granted, a lot of people have gotten rid of their landlines,” Collins said. “It’s an annoyance to me, but it could be life-threatening to others. The thing of it is, you have older people here and it’s a lifeline for them.”
By contrast, AT&T seems to function adequately in the area, several residents said.
“Major change in service the last few weeks,” said Country Club Villas resident Cliff Ahrens. “You can even be in the parking lot and miss calls.”
Ahrens suggested the placement of the temporary tower-on-wheels may be wrong, that it should be higher mauka. The former tower was on the roof of the hotel, but Kamehameha Schools officials plan a $11.5 million demolition from the top down to make way for a visitor center and education facility on the property, which contains significant cultural and historical sites and artifacts.
At Keauhou Punahele, resident Steve Zulawinski recently noticed he couldn’t get data inside his condo. Poolside, his voicemail notification will kick in but the phone doesn’t ring.
“I’ve been tempted to call Verizon and see what’s going on,” he said.
Collins said the cellular giant has known for years that the hotel site would become unavailable and should have planned better. But Heidi Flato, a Verizon spokeswoman, said the company has been working to relocate the cell site for some time.
“Unfortunately, network coverage and capacity enabled by our cell on wheels are limited due to the location and antenna height,” said Flato from California in an email. “We apologize for the inconvenience our customers may experience. We continue to monitor the performance of our COW and are working to improve service until we secure a location for the new cell site.”