Dunstable Cable Fable

Since publishing this, I learned that Dunstable DOES INDEED have a cell tower in the church steeple, AND the church DOES receive compensation! The permit was issued to AT&T. This is in addition to the tower that's been hidden away on Pleasant Street since 2001 that has 2 carriers on it.

(Thank you for the update, Carol!)

Dave

You are welcome! I would encourage anyone with comments (both positive and negative) to write to selectmen@dunstable-ma.gov and they will arrange a meeting with their Verizon rep. As for my personal relationship, we switched over last month from charter. The techs were right on time, polite, clean and seemingly efficient. They came back 2 or 3 times to tweak the tv (my husband is anal) and never complained.

My only comments would be: first they said that the my Charter email would be automaticlly transferred within 30 days; in reality it was 48 hours and the second tech said 14 days so they need some communication upate there; and secondly, I would like to see them "move a little faster" towards local cable access. They were at town hall for 2 days and I don't know the progress, but it was not done; currently I receive local access for Reading and Tyngsboro.

 

Carol Skerrett

There's a cell tower in there but it must be for some ambiguous cell service.  I have Sprint and Verizon and neither seem to work any better in that area.  Cell coverage is dismal in this town.

There's only one antenna there. It serves AT&T/Cingular. We actually switched providers to get that service.

If you can get the stations you want via broadcast, it's the highest quality signal. Certainly better than Charter cable's HD signal, which undergoes varying degrees of compression and suffers from occasional dropouts (in our experience.)

Theoretically, Fios should at least be close, but I can't confirm that.

My problem with Verizon is that they don't appear to be keeping their promises. 

I specifically asked, at their franchise approval meeting with the selectmen,  about when people with underground service (at the street) would be served, last winter.  Their answer was that as soon as the ground thawed they would begin work. Has anyone with existing street-level underground cabling been served yet?

I've heard many assurances, at that meeting as well, that the infamous pole in the center of down would be moved.

The promise was for service equal to, or better than Charter's, at no higher price.

The promise was for Dunstable's community access channel to be carried.

As far as I know, and please correct any mistaken impressions, these things are still promised, but not delivered.

There were two copies of Carol's comment, and I deleted one of them. It appears that the one I deleted had a couple of replies that I deleted along with it. My apologies for this unintentional censoring....

The permit for the church is ATT, as Kathy stated.  The permit for the tower on Pleasant Street was initially granted to Voice Stream in 2001;  they changed names a couple of times and the current holder is Sprint/Nextel.  This tower is in the woods close to where the Highway Garage is located (although the tower is not on town owned land).  Verizon has never applied.

I am inclined to agree about the broken promises by Verizon.

We had FiOS installed last Friday ... The Verizon Dude that came (Rob) did an awesome job.  He cleaned up a mess that Charter had made with my phone and cable lines in the basement.

As we do not have a conduit running from the street to the house for the pre-existing phone and coax cables, Rob said the Fi/Op cable would be placed on the surface, temporarily, until someone else came over to place a conduit underground from the pole to the house.  Then the Fi/Op cable would be placed into the conduit, connected to the home system, and then remove the cable laying on the grass (weeds for now until we get some rain).  All of this happening within a coupe of weeks.

Well - Upon coming home Monday night after work, I notice that the cable has a nice "bridge" look to it.  There was no conduit like I had been promised.  Someone came and directly buried the Fi/Op cable mearly 6" into the ground.  Leaving approx. 24" of cable exposed to potential destruction.

I called, and was "promised" that someone would be out to look at it.  We have only gotten one call back from Verizon, confirming that a complaint had been logged.

Other than this lingering issue, FiOS gives a great picture on the old 42" TV, internet seems better/faster, and phone clarity has definitely improved.

I have At&t /Cingular service & I do not get reception 1 mile from the church.

 

It comes in great out in the middle of the woods of Flat Rock Hill though. 

Dave mentioned that he hopes it never happens, but one day someone could have an emergency in town and not have cell service--this has indeed happened! Two years ago my two oldest sons were returning from the movies with some friends, and just as they entered the center, one of them choked on some food and began hyperventilating. My oldest son pulled over in the pullout beneath the general store and called us frantically, thinking the other couldn't breathe because of an asthma attack. We could BARELY hear him on the cell phone, but raced down to the general store. It was serious, and we immediately called 911--nothing. No service. My husband raced to the police station--closed. It was Saturday night! He then raced to Chief Bacon's house and asked him to track down a police car. When an officer arrived, he took one look at my son and called emergency services; by this time he was in the throes of a full blown seizure. I was frantic to get him in the police car and to the hospital, but the officer was firm-- they "do not transport". It was a full 45 minutes from the time we tried to call 911 to the  time we were finally on the road in an ambulance to Lowell General. It was the longest 45 minutes you can imagine, watching your child struggle for breath. It was inexcusable, and I will never call emergency services again (although I realize it was the fault of the system, not the responders); I will put the victim in the car and drive them by myself.

I have to agree that the lack of cell service in Dunstable is a very serious threat to public safety. This is 2008 correct? Police are not allowed to transport a patient to the hospital as a matter of policy for a myriad of reasons. I've been in public safety for just about 20 years now and Dunstable's EMS service is marginal at best. This is why I have to laugh when people think more budget cuts can be made. How does one cut an already marginal service? Compared to many larger town's in the area I would have to say that your chance of surviving a life threatening event in Dunstable is much lower than those communities that employ their own ambulance. Lowell and Billerica are probably the best places to drop since they employ full time EMT Paramedics, the top level of care short of the emergency room. Most other communities must call a separate paramedic unit which usually can take too long to arrive. Not all ambulance services are created equal.

All of these factors should - No, NEED - be considered next time a cell tower proposal is presented to this town.  Let the ney and yea sayers speak ... but ultimately, the safety of Mr. and Mrs. Public and family is of an ultimate major concern.  Who cares about what it looks like from 1 mile away.

Yes, dangling an orange balloon you will see, but a tower that is dressed to look like a tall pine is almost invisible.

What is worse - A child choking because there's no service, or a very tall looking pine tree cell tower ...  I'll take the tower.

A big problem with the tower proposal that was presented was that it didn't have very good coverage. It wouldn't, for example, have reached most of the communities off of Pond Street, or anything in the shadow of Cheney Hill.

Our best hope is for one or more of the cell phone services to put a transmitter on one of the power stanchions owned by National Grid.  I'm under the impression that they're wide open for a proposal, and no new towers have to be erected.  Those stanchions are very high, and could potentially have very good coverage.