Cellar home base to cellular station

The McIntosh Humanities Building w ill soon have a new multi- million dollar feature, but it will probably escape notice.

A cellular-relay station is being installed in the basement of the McIntosh Building by The Nextel Corp. of Los Angeles.

Nextel chose Cal State Long Beach from more than 100 possible sites in line for the station, following two years of negotiations.

"The relay station will be the first all-digital system in the United States," said Scott Charmack of CSULB's physical planning and facilities department.

Charmack said that Nextel agreed to pay $1,250 per month to lease 200 square feet in the basement of the McIntosh Building. Those monthly payments will go into the university's general fund.

The system, which was expected to be fully operation al in August, is experiencing technical problems and probably will not be in full-working condition until early 1995.

CSULB will be able to use the system in the event of an emergency, such as an earthquake or other disaster.

"The fact that we will be able to utilize this complex system will be very beneficial to the university," said Charmack. "During the Northridge earthquake, our phone system went down. With the use of the Nextel system, we'll have an emergency backup-phone system."

The possibility of free-cellular air time for CSULB faculty and staff came up during negotiations, but due to federal and state regulations, Nextel was not able to meet this proposed condition of the contract.

Los Angeles has the largest cellular sy stem in the country, and Nextel's cellular station will be Southern California's third.