Chilmark residents are fed up by what they say is a deterioration of cellular connectivity and the risks they are facing in town because of it.
Town officials appear to be responding. The Chilmark select board unanimously voted on Sept. 2 to have town administrator Tim Carroll write a letter to major cell carriers complaining about service and to set up a meeting. Major carriers include Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T, as well as American Tower, which operates a series of nodes throughout the town that provide connectivity in some up-Island towns.
Town officials, at a recent board meeting, highlighted that cell services seem to drop more frequently and this lack of service brings risks to public safety.
“This year is by far the worst year for cell phone service in Chilmark in the time I’ve been here,” said Marie Larsen, board chair.
Some Chilmakers also suggest the town review a town meeting vote from over a decade ago that banned cell towers in the up-Island town.
Cell phone service tends to falter across the Island during the summer due to the influx of visitors and seasonal residents, an issue that is magnified in up-Island towns where connection is weaker. While cell carriers have told the Times efforts are underway to improve connection on the Vineyard, the Chilmark board has heard from concerned residents and received letters of complaints about how this is a year-round problem.
Hearing the outcry from residents, Carroll encouraged the public to write letters outlining complaints to the town. He encourage “personal touches,” like if a resident is an older individual living alone without reliable cell phone connectivity. Carroll said the more complaints the carriers receive from customers, the easier it will be for them to justify spending money on upgrades.
“They’re looking for support through angry customers paying the bills,” Carroll said.
At last week’s select board meeting, Chilmark residents also urged for upgrades to the town’s cellular infrastructure. They highlighted that many people no longer have land lines and have a greater dependency on their cell phones. Connectivity during an emergency was top of mind.
Carroll, who is also deputy fire chief in Chilmark, recalled a “near drowning” this summer at Chilmark Pond during a thunder and lightning storm. He highlighted that the first responders’ cell phone service wasn’t working well, like maps on their phones not activating properly.
“It’s the cell phone service … that’s been problematic,” Carroll said.
Sean Slavin, Chilmark Police chief, said he uses AT&T and FirstNet, a service that bolsters first responders’ connectivity for emergencies, but he still can’t get service in “huge chunks of North Road” and other parts of town.
There are no towers in Chilmark that provide cell service. Instead, Chilmark shares a distributed antenna system with Aquinnah, which places nodes to enhance signal strength for cell phones. Carroll said during the meeting that this stemmed from a town meeting 15 years ago when voters voted through a zoning bylaw prohibiting cell towers in the town. The only exception is a tower at Peaked Hill installed by the U.S. Coast Guard and reserved for emergency responders.
In the wake of the town meeting vote, American Tower pursued a different cellular infrastructure through the nodes. However, Carroll said the current 38-node system is smaller than the 50 nodes that engineers had originally proposed. Also, vendors are not as “eager” to upgrade nodes compared to cell towers since they tend to serve less customers.
Carroll also said Verizon is looking to potentially consider a node system up-Island independent of American Tower, which could cause issues of financial feasibility for the rest of the companies on the system if pursued.
Still, residents disagreed on whether the town bylaw restricting cell towers should be lifted. Some said it was better to upgrade the existing system while others felt enough time has passed to revisit the issue.
Chilmark officials said they plan to hold a meeting with representatives of the companies, particularly Verizon and American Tower, to address the community’s concerns. A date has not been set yet.
