Town has cell tower but no provider
What if you built a cell tower and no company mounted an array on it? You might petition local state and federal representatives to try and intercede on your behalf. And if that didn”™t pay off, you might put a petition on the town web site asking cell phone company executives to service your town, for reasons related to revenue and safety.
That is the situation in the town of Shandaken, a scenic town deep in the Catskill Mountains in Ulster County, roughly 30 miles west of Kingston. In 2007 the town contracted with Mariner Towers out of Maine which last year completed a 180-foot cell tower on town-owned land.
“Shandaken is obviously ready,” said town Supervisor Peter DiSclafini. “We have a tower up and definitely we have a market that is growing even in this bad economy. We are a four-season tourist destination and there are a lot of people who come and visit us.”
He said that visitors and tourists from urban areas who are used to seamless cell phone service pull out their cell service and get no signal.
“It”™s pretty upsetting” for them, he said adding that companies could profit from such visitors, as well as by increasing cell phone usage among residents.
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But despite the tower, cell phone companies have yet to place any equipment to provide service, leaving what DiSclafini estimates is a scenic 15-mile stretch of state Route 28Â that is a cell phone dead zone. He said that talk in recent years by the state and county of creating an official network of cell towers for safety and security reasons has not resulted in any action along those lines.
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“Our town is long and narrow and very mountainous so it”™s hard getting service through there,” said DiSclafini. “So if we could get the Route 28 corridor covered that would be a good start.”
“Typically, we don”™t build on spec,” said Chris Ciolfi, who directed development of the Shandaken tower for Mariner Tower. He said that in 2007 when Mariner responded to an RFP from the town of Shandaken, “several carriers” had expressed interest in equipping the tower with cell antennas, especially Nextel, which had worked with the town and a tower company prior to Mariner”™s involvement.
While Ciolfi wouldn”™t specify the cost, he said Mariner developed the tower site “At considerable cost to Mariner, with the intent of putting Nextel equipment on it. Unfortunately, Spring and Nextel have had some business issues,” he said. “That”™s not to say they are not interested, but right now, they have pulled back from build plans.”
Several other companies have expressed interest but none have signed a deal to use the tower to hang an antenna. “Unfortunately, the whole economy and business has changed and Mariner is caught with a tower in the air and no tenant to hang on it,” said Ciolfi.
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DiSclafini also blames the economy for leaving the town with an empty cell tower. He said he has requested intervention in whatever way state and federal representatives can help. But so far that approach has generated only “boilerplate responses,” he said.
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“No one has given me a real answer but the economy at this junction is probably what is holding things up,” said DiSclafini. “Companies are trying to figure out what their budgets are.”
Thus, the petition which is posted on the town”™s web site, urging visitors to the site to add their signatures for an appeal to cell phone company officials to service their town.
“We, the undersigned residents of Shandaken, New York, nearby communities, visitors, and travelers appeal to your company to provide cellular phone service to the Shandaken area,” the petition begins. It continues: “A user-friendly telecommunications law is in place, ready for a population of potential cellular phone subscribers that could provide a steady revenue stream.”
The petition says that with the tower already in place “startup costs there would be minimal,” and adds that with cell phone service in adjacent towns already operational there is a “huge gap,” in coverage that is unfair to cell phone subscribers.
Finally, the petition says, “To residents in this still-remote area, the cellular phone is an increasingly essential prerequisite of life: in the case of medical distress or emergency.”
It notes the area is popular with adventure tourists and fishermen, skiers “or others who may be lost or injured.”
“Providing cellular phone service to our area could contribute both to your company’s bottom line and to its reputation as a good neighbor in our community,” conludes the petition. But so far, cell phones in the area remain silent.