On August 24, 49,000 Penn State students began classes. Since then, folks have experienced cellphone service issues, leaving parts of downtown State College and campus with little to no service.

For some students, their phones have even switched to SOS, making it impossible to send messages or make calls.

Service outages are inevitable, but when they affect this many people, regardless of their cellphone provider, it’s an issue that needs to be addressed. Since returning to school, students have struggled for multiple days to get service in different areas of campus and downtown.

Just last week, while walking home from class in the Carnegie Building, I tried to make a phone call. I walked a few steps outside, and my phone immediately switched to SOS. By the time I reached Old Main, my service had returned to full bars. However, when I tried calling again and again, every call failed.

I disconnected from Wi-Fi, assuming the problem might be related to Penn State’s network. Still, the call failed. I continued walking downtown, where I had full cell service and was far from Penn State’s Wi-Fi, yet my calls continued to fail.

My family in New York uses the same cellphone provider, AT&T, so why are they not experiencing the same issues?

Fix your service, State College.

This is not only an inconvenience for students; it can also delay assignments, disrupt important communications, or even make it difficult to make an emergency call.

While Penn State is a large-capacity university, that doesn’t excuse slow service. If anything, it makes it even more important to have better service because it impacts so many students.

Penn State students deserve reliable cellphone service; it is time to make that change.