New Verizon cell towers support increase in usage

• Reprints

Updated: April 18, 2011 10:19AM

Residents in Burlington, Geneva, Aurora and Barrington Hills might not notice that their Verizon Wireless cellphone service is faster.

That is because the company’s new cellphone towers are designed not only to increase speeds for their regular or G3 smart phone service but also to make sure the areas are ready for future growth.

The company announced this week the activation of new cell sites in those four communities to improve voice and data coverage in the following locations:

Barrington Hills: From County Line Road in the north, to Elgin Road in the east, to Dundee Road in the south and to Route 59 in the west.

Burlington: in and around the community of Burlington.

Northeast Aurora: In the northeast part of the city near the new Aurora Police Center, from Butterfield Road in the north, to North Eola Road in the east, to Liberty Street in the south and to Route 25 in the west.

Southeast Aurora: From East New York Street in the north, to North Eola Road in the east, to Oswego Road in the south and to Route 25 in the west.

Geneva: From Division Street in the north, to North Kirk Road in the east, to East Fabyan Parkway in the south and to Route 25 in the west.

The new cell sites “empower more Verizon Wireless customers to rely on their wireless phones for social networking, Internet browsing, downloading apps, exchanging email and text, picture and video messaging as well as making calls,” according to a press release from the company.

The increased demand in the western Chicago suburbs — and Kane County in general — necessitated the new towers, said Carolyn A. Schamberger, spokeswoman with Verizon wireless.

“Growth out in the western suburbs is driving the increased consumer demand and obviously, too, the growth in data, pictures, text, videos — all the things you are using your phone for every day. The growth in data usage has blossomed,” Schamberger said.

For Verizon, for the final quarter of 2010, about a quarter of its retail post-paid customers had smart phones. About half of all phones sold in that final quarter were smart phones — those that allow for Internet and email access, downloading apps and other uses than just making phone calls, Schamberger said.

“What we are seeing is the smart phone mix is greater and greater,” she said. While there is still a demand for “feature phones” — the basic phones for making calls — people want more functions out of their phones, too, she said.

“More and more … people are looking for smart phones, looking to use their phones for multiple purposes,” Schamberger said.

Even for those who think they don’t need a smart phone but get one based on their current phone usage or other benefits, “once they see the features they ask, ‘How did I live without it?’ ” Schamberger said. “It becomes part of their everyday life.”