BLUE ASH, Ohio — Those who attended Red, White & Blue Ash Tuesday night enjoyed an exciting fireworks show, but cellular service was virtually non-existent for the thousands in the area.
During the event, it was difficult to call, send or receive messages. Some people in attendance said they were concerned about a potential emergency situation happening while they had no service.
"The event itself is awesome," said Kurt Fisher, a Blue Ash resident. "I was at last year's, and last year's was nowhere near as good as this year's."
But while the sights and sounds were a hit, communicating with loved ones was "rough."
"You try getting on your cell phone, you don't have any service. You try to get information to other people, no service. You try to go back to your apartment to figure that out, the person you're trying to communicate with has no service," Fisher said. "So there's no real solution other than hopefully try to meet up with somebody in a massive crowd, which is difficult."
The City of Blue Ash chalked it up to a broader issue where cell service tends to go down when there are a lot of people in one area.
"The entire time I was there ... my cell phone would not work," said Joy Johnson, who also said she got a series of text messages from her home security camera once she got home. "It wasn't until after the event that I literally got all of my messages at one time that there were people like at my door. Kind of scary because still even when you're having a good time you still want to be able to communicate and stay in touch."
Many attendees got messages including "call failed" or "message failed to send." When they checked their cell signal, many people had "SOS." That means you have no cell service and you can only get through by calling 911.
In a statement, the City of Blue Ash said:
"The City understands that lack of cell service can be frustrating for attendees. It is an issue at many large events no matter where they are located. Cell service is not a City utility, so you would need to reach out to the various providers for more information on coverage. In an emergency situation, announcements would be made from the stage and heard through the sound system. Instructions would also be given by first responders who are stationed throughout the event."
Residents like Fisher push back a bit on the city's response.
"Yesterday was the worst, but even when something smaller, when it's a food truck rally which is awesome, you know your service is down or it's slower than normal," said Fisher, saying cell coverage tends to go down significantly any time there's any type of event at Summit Park.
Tech expert Dave Hatter said too much usage could be the problem, but there could be other issues. The cell towers in Blue Ash may be underbuilt, he said, or there could have been widespread outages with different cell phone carriers.
"You may just have a situation where the system was simply overwhelmed because you have too many people trying to use it all at once and not just trying to use it, but also trying to use it for more bandwidth-intensive purposes like sharing video," Hatter said.
Hatter said some possible solutions to fix the problem include the city installing a WiFi network in the area, or cell phone companies expanding their coverage or improving their cell towers. WCPO also reached out to Verizon to ask about any potential widespread outage Tuesday. As of Wednesday night, company spokespeople said they would get back to us.
"We're so dependent on this stuff and when it fails you know what is the impact on people, especially in a life-threatening situation," said Hatter.
