AT&T Cell Tower Down at Princeton Hospital Site

COWNo, you haven’t been imagining things if your cell phone provider is AT&T and you’ve noticed that your coverage is very poor lately in parts of Princeton.

The AT&T antenna was taken off the hospital, a Princeton official confirmed this morning. Bob Kiser, the director of Engineering for Princeton, said the company has replaced the tower with a temporary cell on wheels, known as a “COW”, that has been set up along Route 206 next to the town department of public works garage. Kiser said his understanding is that AT&T is still working to activate the COW.

But a COW is only a short-term fix. A COW is one way AT&T meets short term or emergency demands.  The mobile cell sites on a truck come complete with a cellular antennae tower and electronic radio receiver equipment. They’re normally used to bolster capacity during large public events when wireless traffic increases or during disaster recovery.

Calls to AT&T about the COW and long-term plans to replace the tower were not immediately returned. Stay tuned.

3 Comments

  1. Thanks for the info – could you please define “lately” ?

    It seems ATT cell service is bad in numerous parts of Princeton, but I’ve been hearing from one person in particular, who happens to live right down the street from the old hospital, that the service has deteriorated badly recently. The “recently” described by my friend, however, was at least covering the last couple of weeks. This article makes it sound as if the tower went down perhaps this morning, or not long ago at all.

    Any chance we can get some more specific information as to when the tower went OOS?

    1. FYI, I’m guessing the COW is up and running, as I’ve heard from my friend nearby that she now has vastly improved reception on ATT.

  2. It’s not just AT&T. Service for T-Mobil is virtually non-existent around Princeton too. Bad case of NIMBYism. Everyone wants a dependable cell phone service, but nobody wants to see transmitter towers, which as we all know induce CANCER in humans, their pampered pets & garden rocks. You can’t have that among sandal-wearing, Volt-driving populace subsisting on organic, macro-biotic, eco-friendly, fair-trade obtained food.

Comments are closed.