1 AT&T evaluated the significant gap in coverage described above and has determined that it <br />2 must provide higher quality service, both indoor and outdoor, in this geographic area. <br />3 When designing antenna sites in a high quality wireless communications network, radio <br />4 frequency engineers must keep several objectives in mind, including: <br />5 1. Coverage. The antenna site must be located in an area where the <br />6 radio frequency broadcasts will provide adequate coverage within the <br />7 significant gap in coverage. <br />8 2. Call Handoff. The antenna site must be located in an area where the <br />9 radio broadcasts from this site will allow seamless call handoff with <br />10 adjacent sites. "Call handoff" is a feature of a wireless communications <br />11 system where the system will allow an ongoing telephone conversation to <br />12 continue uninterrupted as the user travels from the coverage area of one <br />13 antenna site to the coverage area of an adjacent antenna site. This <br />14 requires coverage overlap for a sufficient distance and/or period of time to <br />15 support the mechanism of the handoff. <br />16 3. Interference. The antenna site must be located in an area that will <br />17 avoid creating interference with adjacent sites where a large number of <br />18 equally strong signals overload the telephone's capability of distinguishing <br />19 the correct signal. If there is too much overlapping signal, the system and <br />20 phone will experience interference or noise, resulting in: (a) dropped calls, <br />21 (b) blocked outgoing calls, (c) blocked incoming calls, (d) coverage gaps, <br />22 and (e) decreased system capacity. <br />23 4. Quality of Service. Users of wireless communications services want to <br />24 use their services where they live, work, commute and play, including <br />25 when they are indoors. AT&T's coverage objectives include the ability to <br />Declaration of Vicki Littlefield Page 7 <br />CU 14-3 <br />