Talk all you want on the holiday
COEUR d'ALENE - Verizon Wireless is planning ahead this Fourth of July by rolling a COW into downtown Coeur d'Alene to improve network coverage.
What's a COW?
It's an acronym for Cell On Wheels; Verizon also has a line of COLTs, or Cell On Light Truck.
The mobile cell towers are being used more frequently in the Pacific Northwest - especially during large events attracting hundreds of thousands of people carrying 4G smart phones.
"We as a company have been trying to plan ahead," said Scott Charlston, a spokesman for the company.
With more and more people upgrading their cellphones to 4G LTE smart phones, there is need for more network coverage during large gatherings, Charlston said.
"People are beginning to realize they can use their phones to download a movie over the wireless network in a matter of minutes," he said. "There are all kinds of things people are doing with their phones now."
Charlston said Verizon has a lot of customers in North Idaho and Spokane, so there is a need for the COWs and COLTs in the region.
First and foremost, the mobile cell towers are used to aid firefighters and other first responders in remote locations during forest fires and other emergencies.
But if they are not in use for emergencies, Charlston said the company sends them out in advance of large events. The COW in downtown Coeur d'Alene spent last weekend at Hoopfest in Spokane.
"There were hundreds of thousands of people in downtown Spokane, and everyone had a cell phone," he said. "In just one hour we had over 381,000 data transactions on the network - that's a lot of activity."
He said people uploading and downloading data from the Internet can put a huge strain on the network and force dropped calls. At times when the network is overloaded, there may be no data service available at all, he said.
Charlston said the company used the COWs and COLTs in Seattle during the Seahawks Super Bowl parade, and it was successful there as well.
Verizon welcomes requests for the mobile towers, but the company cannot guarantee that it can meet all requests.
"Almost every summer weekend there is some sort of event going on, but we can't do every event," he said. "We just try to determine where the heaviest crowds are and where the need is the greatest."