One of Verizon’s 17 small cell towers sits outside Ohio Stadium Friday afternoon. To accommodate the large student population and the highly awaited football season, Verizon added more small cell towers around the stadium. Credit: Kiki Cain | Lantern Reporter
Football season is just getting started, which means cellular coverage in the Shoe can be rather sparse. But Verizon is aiming to make game days more efficient with its newly expanded cellular systems.
With the historic first-year class size and a highly anticipated football schedule, Verizon has made an addition to its Distributed Antenna System, also known as DAS. Comprising smaller networks that work together across campus, this addition plants small “cells” — cell towers that provide more network capacity over smaller surface areas — around Ohio Stadium and adjacent campus areas.
Tony Folden, senior engineer of Spec-Tech project management at Verizon, said eight small cells were built in 2022, with nine more being added this year. Three cells are currently active; beyond those, three more will activate by September’s end, and the final trio of cells will be active by the 2024-25 academic year’s conclusion.
Folden said while it has been difficult for football-game attendees to get reliable cellular coverage in the past, Verizon is working to improve cellular conditions through the use of more 4G and 5G coverage, provided by the new small cells.
“With this system, it makes it easier to use the internet and social media in and around the stadium,” Folden said.
Though the DAS was first implemented on campus in 2012, Folden said Ohio State’s enrollment rate has continued increasing, and with it, the amount of cellular coverage needed on campus.
Mazher Iqbal, senior director of network performance at Verizon, said along with the small cells, the Outdoor Distribution Antenna System — or ODAS — provides cellular coverage across campus.
“Small cells and ODAS are very similar,” Iqbal said. “ODAS is the system used for capacity. Where we see congestion in our network is where we add capacity.”
Iqbal said the macro cell towers — which cover larger areas due to their capacity to send signals across further distances — work with the small cells and ODAS, sending the signals back to the DAS — housed on the West side of campus in the Carmack lot — in order to provide coverage.
“DAS in Carmack is the brain of everything,” Iqbal said. “Small cells, macros and ODAS systems are all tied together at the Carmack location.”
Not only does the DAS provide cellular coverage in and around the stadium, but Folden said it also covers some dormitories — including Bowen House, Raney House and Scott House — and other buildings around campus, including the Martha Morehouse Outpatient Center, The Ohio Union and The Schottenstein Center.
Considering the university’s historically large freshman class, Folden said it is more important now than ever that these new installations are completed.
Heidi Reiter — associate vice president of network engineering at Verizon — said as Ohio State’s campus has continued expanding over the years, Verizon has continued adding additional cellular systems to provide students with as much coverage as possible.
“New expansion, such as the new hospital and construction, can shadow the coverage for other buildings,” Reiter said. “That’s why the DAS system is being used: because the macros aren’t able to reach all buildings because of the new expansion ‘shadowing’ the other buildings from getting coverage.”
Iqbal said Verizon’s installations also serve as a “neutral host” for small-cell technology, meaning the new systems will also provide users with other carriers, including AT&T and T-Mobile, to increase cellular coverage.
