We Can Hear You Now (maybe)
October 12, 2006 on 6:10 pm | In Local, Main |
[Photo of the Salisbury tower under construction in May by me]
After months of aggravating delays in getting utilities to the site, Salisbury has finally joined the 21st century (or something close to it). The cell tower in the center of the village now works — that is if you happen to live close enough to the tower to throw a brick at it.
Steve Ohlinger, who owns the Auto Shop behind Labonne’s, called us late yesterday to tell us the wireless phone of one of his employees rang around 6 p.m. Of course, that had never happened before, since most of the town has lain in a black hole ever since the nationwide advent of cell phone service in 1980s.
Ohlinger also said later that evening, that same phone could not get a signal. But I later found out that was because the wireless company was still performing some tests. Today was the first full day of uninterrupted service.
So today it is back online, I am happy to report. I don’t own a cell phone (I am still a holdout), but my publisher Janet Manko lent me hers this morning. So I drove around town checking to see where I could get a suitable signal. The results were interesting.
As you might expect, the signal in or near the center of Salisbury is excellent — after all, the tower is located at the town highway garage on Academy Street. But it works only if you happen to use Cingular as your carrier. Cingular is the only carrier with facilities currently on the tower, although John Arthur of Wireless Edge , the company that put up the 150-foot monopole, told me he is in negotiations with other providers to co-locate on the Salisbury tower. He respectfully declined to say which ones, however.
Coverage is still strong as you drive east on Route 44 until you start going down Smith Hill after Salisbury School. I did not go north on Route 41 but I am assuming it is fine, even farther up the road, where you can pick up another Cingular tower across that flat valley into Sheffield.
Go west on 44 and you are fine until you get past Lincoln City Road. When you go down the hill toward downtown Lakeville, the signal is minimal all the way to the blinking yellow light. Go straight and it picks up again around Holley Street and the Wagner-McNeil building, then disappears shortly thereafter. If you take 41 past the Patco, the signal picks up near St. Mary’s, weakens just past the Wake Robin and evaporates a few hundred feet before the Woodland. I was surprised to learn that it does not pick up as you head up the hill to Hotchkiss School. Take a right onto 112 and still no signal all the way back to 44.
I also went down Salmon Kill Road (strong until just past Dark Hollow), Farnum Road (spotty) and Wells Hill (uneven). There were portions of Wells Hill past the church where the signal was coming in at a 4 or 5 out of 10. And in other places it disappeared altogether. Surprisingly enough, at the top of the hill and the four-way stop at Race Track Road, it was dead.
Then I tried the big test: my neighborhood. I drove up Robin Hill and … nothing. Past Yonder Way and … very little. As I pulled into Red Bird Lane … stronger (about a 6). As I sat in my driveway, I saw a full signal (10). Inside the house it was still a 7.
P.S. I also went to the Town Grove. The Grove rats will be disappointed to learn that coverage there is very weak (mostly a 1). I did find one spot that was better: on the slate walkway from the parking lot about halfway to the intersection with the other sidewalk. If you stopped there and shuffled here and there, you could get a three or four and place a call. I’m sure the weekenders with their Blackberries will be disappointed.
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I was in Mizza’s Pizza this afternoon, and was able to take a call from my husband on my cell phone. The signal wasn’t very strong, but it was strong enough for a clear call. It’s about time.
Comment by Amy — October 12, 2006 #
Since my house is in the “completely dead” zone, I guess I don’t need to rush out and buy a cell phone.
The most compelling reason that I heard for the cell tower was its use for emergency services. I hope some hikers will carry cell phones with them on our trails, and report back.
For the record, in my opinion the new cell tower will do as much to change the character of this town as anything else I can think of. We can always hope people will be considerate of others…
Comment by Wendy — October 12, 2006 #
Terry….
My MOTO Cingular telephone recieved signal from the new Salisbury tower from Salisbury Garden Center into Lakeville (at various rates…2 bars from the garden center to lions head, then full thru salisbury, three-two bars from Lincoln City Road, one to two bars in the center of Lakeville, none on 44 past Peter Olivers house…).
But, if you look at a whole, we now have service from Ashley Falls thru North Canaan, into Salisbury and Lakeville, to Millerton, NY. Service with a few sections of dead spots. This is a vast improvemnet!! We have more service that not on that route! If you now go down Route 7 from North Canaan, yeou basicly have service right into Lime Rock..not bad!. You even have service on Route 7 from 112 into West Cornwall, with some dead spots!!! This all from 4 towers….Surdam Mt in Sharon, Lime Rock Park, The Tower in North Canaan, and Salisbury’s new tower!! Sharon is also served by a tower on Silver Mountain in NY, and the Tower in Amenia, and Millerton ahs the cell tower on the water tower. Its not perfect, but its getting better!!!
Its a blessing that service is weak at the Town Grove, could you imagine all the weekenders in the summer if there was strong service, why the town grove would sound like a video arcade with all the different ring tones going off!!!
Call me on my cell, lets chat!
Marshall Miles
Comment by Marshall Miles — October 13, 2006 #
Cell phones are here to stay. Just travel almost anywhere and they are a constant presence…whether we like it or not.
My feeling is that it is now a utility (vs. luxury) and should be legislated as such, like cable. That means that everyone who has a phone should be able to use it. Lots of people (OK, renters mostly) no longer have landlines at home, and are largely dependent on these little boxes of frustration.
Not that we should have towers everywhere (have you seen the hysterical one on the Hutch near White Plains?); but where there are towers, everyone, esp EMTs and FDs, should have access.
Comment by Peter Halle — October 13, 2006 #
I am one of those who use a different service, and I am waiting for Nextel to get an antena up on the tower, though having even ONE carrier up is a big step in the right direction.
Sure, we will never be like a major city, like Philadelphia, who works twoard making the entire city “Wireless” (Internet, Phone, etc).. but to not have any service at all was way to primitive.
Comment by fred — October 13, 2006 #
Well, it’s nice that there’s now a cell tower in Salisbury (beyond the one the folks at Lime Rock Park have provided for some time). That lets me say simply that I’m in a dead zone out here in the howling wilderness of Twin Lakes instead of bluntly saying “there’s no cell service up here”.
A note of caution: if you call Cingular to complain that you cannot get reception, they will check your records and tell you that the problem is that you need a new phone. I fell for this yesterday (my daughter expressed horror that I fell for this “scam” which evidently has been around about as long as their have been cellphones) and now have a brand new cellphone (replacing my two year old phone) that will evidently do everything but eat lunch (and if I can figure out which buttons to push it will probably do that, too).
Nope, there’s still no cell service on a substantial section of Between the Lakes Road.
But I do have a question: since Between the Lakes Road is both a road AND a recognized hiking trail, can we please have cell service out here so at least the hikers can call home?
Comment by Geoff Brown — October 21, 2006 #