Getting a handle on spotty cell service

Can you hear me now? The answer if you live and/or work on Shelter Island is probably not all the time. Mobile communications on the Island and surrounding communities is inconsistent, which is why CityScape Communications has the Island and three surrounding communities — Southold, North Haven and Sag Harbor — exploring ways to improve service for cellphone customers.

Susan Rabold, a consultant hired by the Town to evaluate and map mobile communications, spent close to 45 minutes at the June 1 Town Board work session outlining gaps that exist for cellphone users on the Island and how they might be addressed. The effort doesn’t include broadband or wired services, but is aimed strictly at cellphones, Ms. Rabold said.

There has been an explosive increase in people opting for cellphones over landline telephones with insufficient support to handle the wide usage, she said, with also additional use of tablets, smart watches and other mobile devices, 

Some Islanders have no cell service where they live. Others find when traveling around the Island they have spotty service, with calls cut off depending on where they’re driving. The same has been true in the other three communities.

Not included in the group in contract with the four communities are Dering Harbor and Greenport Village, Ms. Rabold said

CityScape has been working on improving mobile communications for local governments and dealing with policies affecting service since the late 1990s. Team members include engineers and legal and planning professionals to identify where service gaps occur and how to remedy situations that can frustrate many mobile callers, she said. In gathering the data, the team considers individual community characteristics, actual infrastructure for wireless communications that serve each jurisdiction showing gaps and puts together a master plan for each community to provide seamless coverage and connectivity.

Ms. Rabold outlined the Island’s cellphone towers and how each functions to serve current and anticipated needs. Already systems designed for the early days of cellphones are being stretched for 5G service and plans are afoot for 6G and beyond, she said.

The Island has towers — also called “macro cells” — at the Center Firehouse, the Recycling Center, the potato barn at the Fire Department’s substation on Cobbett’s Lane where a tower exists carrying AT&T equipment and one devoted strictly to police communications. There is also some support from off-Island towers. Some equipment penetrates buildings, others don’t.

In addition to the macro cells, there are smaller wireless facilities that can boost service, but they have to be very close to one another — in some areas, on every block.

Terrain, trees and other obstacles can lessen service as well, Ms. Rabold said. But without such obstacles, there are areas able to use shorter poles or even existing telephone poles to which equipment can be attached. There are also base stations — not towers at all, but could be water tanks to which equipment could be attached.

Noting that CityScape is not in the business of building or selling cell towers, Ms. Rabold outlined scenarios for Islanders to consider what they might prefer to improve cellphone service on the Island. They vary in how they look, how they work and what the public prefers in terms of community character.

You can watch Ms. Rabold’s presentation on the Town website on the YouTube channel listed undwer services — June 2 Town Board work session — to hear about alternative solutions and see photos revealing differences in equipment and effectiveness. You can then take a poll posted at the top of the Town website to voice your opinions.

You have two weeks, and possibly three, to make your voice heard about what you prefer in terms of how the solutions could look and function and which you think would be best in terms of the character of the community.

Once the poll closes, results will be tallied and another meeting with Ms. Rabold will be scheduled.