While the community is anticipating slowdowns on Wi-Fi and cellular networks, phone companies say there shouldn't be any disruptions due to large crowds. (Syda Productions/Adobe Stock)
This story has been updated with more information on local cell signal from Julien Mailland, IU associate professor of media management law and policy.
Officials disagree on how the large influx of people coming to view the April 8 eclipse will impact cellular networks and communication lines. Bloomington is directly in the path of totality for the total eclipse.
Indiana University has been planning three years for the eclipse, and the estimated 300,000 people expected to come to Bloomington to watch it. At an IU press conference, Benjamin Hunter, associate vice president for public safety, said you should expect to have a harder time communicating by phone with all the people coming.
“We love instant communication; we know that that will be slowed down, so we want people to be patient,” Hunter said. “When we fill this venue [IU Memorial Stadium] of 52,000 people for a game or people tailgating, you can't get a cell phone connection. When you bring a lot of people into one area, they're all going to be fighting for that network.”
Monroe County Emergency Management and Indiana University set up a text line that will send out eclipse-related incident alerts. Residents can opt-in to these messages by texting “MoCoEclipse” to 226787.
Kevin Getz, Indiana state police sergeant and public information officer for the Bloomington district, said he is not concerned about the ability for police to communicate that day. Police will have a secondary network for radio communications in place and have given troopers new portable radios and a new radio system for their cars.
Read more: Bloomington, IU leaders share safety plans for 300,000 eclipse visitors
“We've deployed people throughout our campuses and along the bypass, anticipat[ing] that there could be communication issues,” Hunter said. “We do that for every large event, so that's not new for us. Emergency Management at IU plans and prepares for that.”
Yet Ryan Pedigo, captain with the Bloomington Police Department, said he anticipates there will be difficulties using the statewide radio system due to the large amount of traffic that is expected for the eclipse. If the statewide 800 MHz radio system is overloaded with too many communications at one time, police would get a "busy bump." This means that the system is so busy that police cannot communicate by radio.
“In the event that the normal radio communication that we use daily is unavailable or overloaded, we do have multiple plans in place that we can fall back on to maintain communications between the officers and dispatch,” Pedigo said.
Cellular Lines
Ginger Murphy, deputy director of stewardship for Indiana state parks, said she expects cell signals to slow down.
“We had conversations with a number of other state park systems who were in the path of the 2017 eclipse, and visitors at some locations then had that experience,” Murphy said. “The best thing for people to do is text if they can.”
She also suggested people just enjoy the moment.
“Rather than trying to do any kind of recording of the eclipse with your phone, which requires special filters anyway, just watch it,” she said. “Make it a memorable three and a half or four minutes.”
The Monroe County Emergency Management Agency also expects limited cell and internet service due to increased use.
On the other hand, Verizon does not expect the large influx of people to impact its network. A spokesperson for Verizon said the company network did not experience any issues during the last total eclipse in 2017. Since then, the company has significantly increased the capacity of its 5G network to handle more data. Last year, Verizon gained access to additional C-band spectrum, which doubled and, in some cases, tripled the amount of bandwidth available to customers.
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“That means we have drastically increased the capacity of our network to manage exponentially more data,” a statement from Verizon said. “Alongside the spectrum additions and the newer 5G technology, we also upgraded our fiber to manage 10 times the amount of data our previous fiber could manage.”
The statement said only physical objects, such as buildings and trees, impact the airlinks that cell towers transmit to customer devices. Since these signals are not impacted by the sun’s availability, Verizon does not expect any slowdown when the sun is covered during the eclipse.
“Our Radio Access Network (RAN) consists of tens of thousands of cell sites connected to centralized network facilities and data centers via fiber optic cables that transmit the data our network manages,” the company said. “With no impact to the airlink in the network and all other data transmitted via a connected, wire link (fiber optic cables) there will not be an impact to our network from the upcoming solar eclipse.”
AT&T also does not expect any impact on its network. According to an AT&T spokesperson, AT&T has expanded its 5G network to cover over 295 million people in nearly 24,500 cities and towns.
“Our network has drastically changed since the last solar eclipse in 2017,” AT&T said. “Our customers now have the benefit of AT&T 5G which provides unique experiences, faster speeds and capacity to do more of the things our customers like. Our higher-speed mid-band 5G+ spectrum alone covers more than 210 million people.”
AT&T said the FirstNet Response Operations Group, a public safety network, is preparing backup connectivity plans in case of any slowdowns. The company did not experience any difficulties on their network during the last eclipse in 2017.
Julien Mailland, IU associate professor of media management law and policy, said cell networks will very likely experience extreme slowdowns with all the people coming to the area.
“Think of a culvert in Bloomington when it pours rain; usually what happens is that the culvert overflows and the streets get flooded, and we've seen this in Bloomington time and time again,” he said. “Cell networks work the same way. Each antenna only had so much bandwidth.”
Since it takes very little bandwidth to send a text, texting should not be severely impacted. Even if the text does not send right away, it will stay in the queue in your phone until enough bandwidth is available for it to send. Phone calls require more bandwidth, so it is less likely a call will go through. He said data and wi-fi will not be good either.
“If I go to a coffee shop downtown, on a normal day, there will be maybe five people trying to get on their wi-fi and maybe on Monday there's going to be 500 people, so that might also be quite slow,” he said. “I think we just need to prepare for the fact that we'll be getting back to the 80s. We might not be able to be on the phone all the time.”
Even though Verizon and AT&T have assured that large crowds will not affect their networks, Mailland said service has suffered in the past at big events, such as football games and concerts. He said cell phone companies are not very transparent about how their networks work and releasing data on the limited bandwidth of local cell towers.
Wi-Fi Networks
In terms of Wi-Fi networks, Mark Spencer, IU director of telecommunications infrastructure for University Information Technology Services at Indiana University, said he does not expect people in IU buildings will experience any slowdowns on IU’s Wi-Fi networks, such as eduroam and IU Guest. Since IU classes are canceled the day of the eclipse, fewer people will be using the Wi-Fi anyway.
“We don't really see this as a major event, unlike what we would normally have with graduation or a football game,” Spencer said. “Take the first week of classes even; you will see over 220,000 unique devices on the network on one of those days.”
If people are outside of IU buildings and not connected to one of IU’s Wi-Fi networks, Spencer said it might take longer for videos and websites to load on the internet on cell phones, especially in places like the football stadium where many people will be gathered. Calling and texting should not be affected.
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“For the stadium itself, we actually do have a contractor that provides coverage for cell service in that facility,” Spencer said. “Just last fall, they did a significant upgrade that increases capacity and bandwidth relative to what was there before. So that's already in place and should be ready to go when the big event happens.”
2017 eclipse
During the last total eclipse in 2017, AT&T reported that total data records increased by 25 percent and total SMS records increased 40 percent in the 24 hours surrounding the eclipse. Network traffic increased by as much as six times more in small towns like Madras, Oregon, and up to two times more in cities like Nashville, Tennessee, and Lincoln, Nebraska. These areas were in the path of totality, like Bloomington will be this year.
Lysa Vattimo, chief of staff public information officer for the Madras police department in Oregon, said the area did not experience any difficulties communicating by phone or radio during the 2017 eclipse. As a town with a population of around 6,000 people, Madras saw 100,000 people come for the eclipse.
“We reached out to the cell phone companies and brought in cellular towers to accommodate the extra traffic,” she said. “We had a minimum of two.”
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The town of Madras started planning for the eclipse a year and a half in advance, which Vattimo said she believes is why they did not have any trouble communicating. Police officers made sure their equipment was working properly and had human repeaters in place, people who could transmit information in multiple steps in case you couldn’t go directly to the main source.
“Whenever you bring in an influx of people like that, especially in a rural area, you can anticipate that there would be some communication issues,” she said. “We did it (brought in cell towers) specifically because we wanted to make sure our law enforcement and fire and emergency personnel would be able to communicate if needed. We didn't want our internet and cell communications clogged up.”
Oregon Emergency Management, which was located in Salem during the eclipse, reported that due to the large number of people on their network, the OEM internet system slowed down significantly. Many were unable to connect to the internet. The Emergency Coordination Center also did not have enough space for staff to work additional phone lines, an internet hot spot and electrical equipment. However, the state planning team was able to consistently communicate throughout the day of the eclipse. Two mobile emergency response system vehicles were also successfully set up in Salem and Madras to enhance communications.
Carbondale, Illinois was also in the path of totality during the 2017 eclipse. Stan Reno, chief of police for the Carbondale Police Department, said the city did not have any issues with their radio communications for emergency services. About 25,000 people, nearly double the normal population, watched the eclipse in Carbondale.
“We met with cell companies ahead of the event and were assured that the infrastructure in place was adequate to handle the influx of people,” Reno said. “It did not require them to set any boosting technology or improvements.”
