Cell Phone Reception A Concern For Pope's Visit After Made In America Festival On The Parkway
By Justin Udo
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Cell phone companies have spent millions of dollars upgrading their services along the Ben Franklin parkway in anticipation of the pope's visit to Philadelphia.
Some customers who attended the Made In America concert on the parkway say those modifications did not help their cell service.
Together AT&T and Verizon have invested $45-million to add cell-service infrastructure along the Parkway, these modifications are expected to quadruple wireless coverage.
In a previous interview with KYW Newsradio Verizon Wireless spokesman John O'Malley says they've implemented a Distributed Antenna System along the Parkway that improves wireless service.
" That is all permanent infrastructure that's going to stay in place.
Many of the people who attended the made in America concert last weekend say their cell phone reception was terrible.
" I wasn't able to make calls and texts were blocked and backed up." said one attendee.
Another concert goer said, "I did try to upload photos to instagram and facebook and I was having difficulty loading them."
Made in America had between 30 and 70 thousand people in attendance each day.
The pope's visit is expected to bring more than 1 million people to the parkway.
