Better cell service along Northway by year's end

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November 2, 2007

By KIM SMITH DEDAM The Press Republican Fri Nov 02, 2007, 02:31 PM EDT

LAKE PLACID — Cell-phone dead zones made the A-list of issues at a legislative reception Friday morning at Mirror Lake Inn.

With tourism numbers up and winter on the way, state lawmakers reported progress on temporary towers, anticipating added cell service on remote stretches of Interstate 87 by late December.

LOST TOURIST

During the breakfast, one local motel owner told Sen. Betty Little (R-Queensbury) about a guest who turned up missing.

“It was Friday night and the guest hadn’t arrived, so (the motel owner) became concerned and tried to call her,” Little said in an interview.

“He found out she had driven up the Northway as far as Schroon Lake but was running out of gas, with no exits and no cell-phone service, so she turned around and went home.”

People don’t expect to lose communications on an interstate thoroughfare, she said.

“We want people to be safe while they’re here,” she told a room full of hotel/motel owners and tourism leaders.

“We’ve been working on this issue for a long time,” she said, pointing to Assemblywomen Teresa Sayward (R-Willsboro) and Janet Duprey (R-Peru), who were also at the table.

TEMPORARY PATCH

But while Verizon Wireless prepares 11 permanent towers for I-87, a temporary winter solution is also moving forward.

Independent Tower Company found three locations on private land for Cells-On-Wheels (mobile cell towers known as COWs): one just off exit 29, another near the High Peaks rest area and one in the Town of Lewis.

Two locations have the necessary high-speed, T-1 telephone lines, and Verizon is working to reach the third location.

“This would not be perfect, but it would be better,” Little said, indicating a likely reduction in the distance of spotty cell service from 10 miles to four or five miles.

The three towers will cover the “dead” area where most accidents happen, Sayward said.

“That was one of our main concerns, to cover the worst area; I call it the dark zone.”

Independent Tower Company is working with the Adirondack Park Agency now to site the towers.

APA will accept a December-to-April time frame for “temporary,” Little said, in part because the permanent plan is moving steadily forward.

SUBSIDIZED SERVICE

In addition, Gov. Eliot Spitzer and the Department of State have said they would release the $1 million earmarked for emergency cell service on I-87, Little said.

It would cost about $300,000 to subsidize service for three towers for five months, Little said.

“There would be no charge to phone companies. We are waiting to hear if the state (Homeland Security) is going to be a co-applicant on the project.”

A plan established in 2002 by Crown Communications with 42 towers along I-87 would have cost phone companies much more — $2,000 per month to rent a repeater location, Little said.

That plan fell through.

In addition, the newly restored Mountain Lakes Communication tower on Lyon Mountain is being eyed as a good height for a Northway signal.

“We’ll have to see,” Little said, putting a tentative December date on installation.

BROADBAND FUNDS

The Broadband Network Connect project has also received additional funding.

Howard Lowe, director of the Technical Assistance Center at Plattsburgh State, told lawmakers that, so far, they’ve raised $1 million.

The digital backbone, he said would also enhance cell-phone and wireless communications throughout Franklin, Essex and Clinton counties.

UNIQUE

Jim McKenna, president and CEO of the Lake Placid/Essex County Visitors Bureau, offered a fresh look at tourism.

The largest percent of return in I Love New York funding is seen in the Adirondacks, McKenna said.

And recent economic attention to the upstate-downstate division among lawmakers has overlooked a very unique set of Adirondack circumstances.

The park is very different from cities like Rochester, Syracuse and Buffalo, McKenna said.

“If we’re going to have a park, let’s recognize how it’s different and treat it that way. It’s not about getting bigger, it’s about getting better.”

Tourism officials statewide are looking for a total $25 million in I Love New York allocations next year instead of the current $16 million.

E-mail Kim Smith Dedam at:

kdedam@pressrepublican.com