Telecomm tech installed to help cell phone service during pope visit

CENTER CITY (WPVI) -- Ahead of Pope Francis' arrival in Philadelphia officials are hoping major technology upgrades can keep millions of visitors from dropping calls.

On the Ben Franklin Parkway work continues on the pope's venues. The superstructure for the festival stage and the altar is going up with the help of a couple of cranes.

We're only 10 days away from the Pope's arrival and Mayor Nutter says it's time to make final preparations and get in the spirit.

At a press conference Wednesday the mayor said, "This is really about civic pride, about using this historic opportunity to essentially tell our story to the world about our unique history, our exception people who call the Philadelphia region home."

We've heard a lot of complaints about the inconvenience of this massive undertaking. But Nutter says we need to start looking at the bright side, the prestige of the event and the once in a lifetime opportunity.

In the past, the mayor has sternly outlined what people can't do, where they can't park, where they can't walk, where they can't drive. Now he says we need to think about what we can do as a city to show our pride in our unique stature, hosting an international event with the pope attending.

He emphasized that Center City will be impacted, but the rest of the city remains open for business as usual.

The only citywide impact is the suspension of trash collection on Friday and Monday around that weekend.

The signs of preparation are visible on the Parkway. But what you may not notice behind the scenes is represented by nondescript boxes on utility poles.

There are 37 of the mini cell nodes that will boost communications capacity. They got a dry run over Labor Day weekend at the Made in America Music Festival.

Many complained that they had poor cell service on the Parkway during that event. However, engineers say they've addressed those problems.

Pat Slowey from the telecommunications service provider Crown Castle explains, "My understanding was there were a couple of nodes that performed subpar, which we addressed. And I think we all feel very confident about the infrastructure and about the RF, and I think we expect to have the best that could be designed out there for the folks that are here."

And there might be upwards of a million of those folks gathering to celebrate Mass with the pope on the Parkway. So it remains to be seen how well the communication structure will work because that crowd will be ten times the size of the crowd at Made in America.