The Cape and Islands legislative delegation is calling on cellphone service providers to undergo infrastructure upgrades across the region, in light of the reported gap in coverage that worsens in the summer months.
The seven-member delegation that includes Island representatives state Sen. Julian Cyr and state Rep. Thomas Moakley, sent a letter to executives at AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon laying out a series of recommendations like providing a plan and timeline for improving coverage, speed, and network resilience; strengthening customer support; and better engagement with local and regional municipalities to coordinate solutions.
“These service failures are more than an inconvenience; they risk public safety, strain local economies, and hinder access to essential services for residents, businesses, and visitors alike,” the letter, which was signed on August 29 and shared with The Times this week, states. “Constituents consistently report dropped calls and unreliable signals, especially during periods of peak seasonal population. In some areas, residents and visitors cannot place emergency calls or conduct basic communication tasks without leaving their homes or traveling to areas with stronger reception.”
The letter comes as concern in Chilmark about the lack of coverage has frustrated public officials, and was voiced at the up-Island select board meeting last week. It also comes after public safety officials around the Island criticized the lack of reliability in the summer months. First responders in Chilmark and other towns say that there are some parts of the Island where service is so bad that it jeopardizes emergency response.
There are no towers in Chilmark or Aquinnah that provide cell service. Instead, Chilmark shares a distributed antenna system with Aquinnah, which places nodes to enhance signal strength. Chilmark officials note that 15 years ago, voters passed a zoning bylaw at town meeting prohibiting cell towers. The only exception is a tower at Peaked Hill installed by the U.S. Coast Guard and reserved for emergency responders.
The letter from the State House delegation focuses largely on the Cape. It quotes a survey of Barnstable County that found that more than 40 percent of residents surveyed “report experiencing slowdowns or dropped connections at least once a week, and more than 20 percent report such issues daily.”
And the lawmakers push for relief quickly.
“Reliable telecommunications infrastructure is fundamental to public safety, economic activity, education, healthcare access, and civic participation,” the letter states. “We urge your companies to treat this issue with the urgency it warrants and to take immediate, transparent action to improve service quality across Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard, and Nantucket.”
Representatives of the three cell service providers named in the letter were not immediately available for comment.
I used to have a wireless company and I wish I had gotten into the conversation back in the 2008/2009 time-frame when Chilmark went for a Distributed Antenna System (DAS). My company was looking at DAS for a different location and it is a good technology. But, and there are always buts. As you can see from the antennas running up State Rd, they are not very tall. This is on purpose as they are only supposed to have a less than mile coverage area (preferably less than half a mile). Most of the frequencies used for wireless phone service are line of site. So low antennas and lots of hills leads to bad coverage. Coverage is great along State Rd, but get near the beach and have a hill between you and the road, you have spotty coverage.
Then I look at the antenna at the bottom of Squibnocket Rd and note that it is tilted… Clearly the trees pushed it off level. Antennas are optimized to point at where you want coverage, so the State Rd/Squibnocket Rd antenna is pointed over the hills towards Squibnocket and into the ground before Quitsa pond.
Peaked Hill would cover most of Up-Island. But you would run into capacity issues during the peak summer months. We can do better Up-Island!
Wind turbines make great cell towers