OES/911 Director Works to Secure AT&T Cellular Coverage for Northern Part of Webster County

Despite pleas from Office of Emergency Services (OES) and 911 Director Richard Rose requesting that AT&T expand cellular coverage to the Northern part of Webster County, AT&T responded by saying "as of now nothing is in the works."

In a letter to AT&T, Rose raised two concerns relating to AT&T wireless coverage throughout Webster county. "The first concern is the proposed upgrade of the two existing sites that you have within our county from the current EDGE platform up to at least the 3G platform. The second concern is the possibility of placing an additional site and service on our existing tower on Hodam Mountain, which lies in the northern part of our county that currently has no AT&T service. However, US Cellular currently has service in the northern, central, and southern parts of our county," Rose's letter states.

In his letter, Rose pointed out the difficulties encountered by the lack of cellular coverage in the Northern party of the county, particularly that which was encountered during the two recent natural disasters. "During these times, the utility companies' (electric, phone, water, etc.) communications systems went out and they solely relied on cellular service to restore the utilities. The northern part of the county was without ALL communications for several days. We think that placing service on our tower at Hodam Mountain would definitely benefit the emergency services, critical infrastructure, along with the hundreds of residents and thousands of tourists that travel through this area to get to Snowshoe Resort, Silver Creek Resort, and Holly River State Park," Rose's letter stated.

A representative from AT&T responded to Rose's letter. The representative noted that AT&T has plans to upgrade its Cowen and Webster Springs' cellular sites, with the Cowen upgrade scheduled for June 30, 2013 and the Webster Springs upgrade scheduled for December 31, 2013 (both dates are tentative and may be changed).

The representative further stated that no new cell sites are planned for the Northern part of the county, but that Rose's concerns will be taken into consideration for future planning.