Major Hang-Up on Tollways: Spotty Cell-Phone Service

The Eastern toll road promises to get you where you’re going faster, but you can’t chat on your cell phone the whole way.

Toll road officials--many of whom have been cut off in mid-conversation themselves--say that’s a major problem that costs the agencies customers every day.

“It’s obvious to me that the people who will pay tolls are the same people who conduct a lot of business in their cars,” said Supervisor Todd Spitzer, a toll road board member. “I myself have gotten off the toll road and sat in congestion just because I knew I’d be able to return phone calls.”

In a resolution passed Thursday at a meeting of the Transportation Corridor Agencies, board members called driving the roads “less than satisfactory” without the option of uninterrupted cell-phone service. But the problem, which officials have been aware of for years, is easier stated than solved.

It would cost an estimated $6 million to bring all of the county’s 51 miles of toll road into the cellular era, agency spokesman Mike Stockstill said. The cost is so high because the Eastern--a virtual cellular black hole--and the San Joaquin Hills toll road--which has spotty service at best--are through largely rural areas with little or no electrical or phone lines in place.

Pete Inman, a consultant with Santa Ana-based Interstate Resource Corp., is working with the region’s five cellular providers to solve the problem. He said the design of the roads--all built this decade--did not take cell-phone use into account.

At best, Inman said, there may be some service in the problem spots by next year.

Steve Crosby, a vice president for external affairs for AT&T; Wireless, said the situation would have been better if his company and its competitors had been consulted earlier. Now, he said, he and representatives of Airtouch Communications, PacBell Mobile Systems, Sprint and Nextel want to work with the county and surrounding cities to bring cell phones to Orange County’s newest roads.