Four new cellular towers on the way in New York

By Alex Nunes
The Post-Star, Glens Falls, N.Y.
Aug. 19--Verizon Wireless has begun construction on four of 13 planned cell phone tower sites that are expected to close a more than 50-mile coverage gap along the Northway, the company said Monday. The four sites are located in Warrensburg, North Hudson, Schroon Lake and Lewis, and are expected to be operational by the end of the year. "We're anxious to get these four sites up and in service," said Verizon spokesperson John O'Malley. "There's been a lot of calls for service along that stretch of the Northway and I think these four sites are a very good start."
The towers are expected to provide service to areas that were not previously covered.
Two additional proposed Verizon sites, in Chesterfield and Lewis, are being considered by the Adirondack Park Agency, which oversees zoning law in the park, Verizon said.
The coverage radius of the new sites will depend on the geography of the land surrounding the site, O'Malley said. Typically, a tower in a flat region covers a 10-mile radius, but service is more limited in a mountainous area, he said.
State Sen. Elizabeth Little, R-Quensbury, said the new towers show the region is "definitely moving forward" on covering the Northway. Little said she wants Verizon to build the towers large enough so the cell carrier T-Mobile can also operate on the site. T-Mobile has its site applications before the APA.
"Rather than seeing double the number of cell towers, I would like to see something like the one that is going to be in the town of Lewis," Little said, referring to a recently approved tower that can accommodate four cell phone companies.
AT&T has already committed to operate on the Lewis tower, an APA spokesman said in an interview last week.
Little said putting cell-phone providers on the same tower could help during emergency situations on the Northway. "Worst-case scenario would be to have somebody have an accident there and then they have a phone that doesn't work on the cell towers that are there," Little said.
Verizon is open to allowing other cell carriers to locate on its new towers, but has not yet been contacted, O'Malley said. Usually, phone companies discuss grouping together after a tower is constructed, he said.
The remaining seven of the 13 planned Verizon sites are in the development stages and will be submitted to the APA at a later date. Verizon's Northway project is being funded solely by the cell phone company and is a part of a more than $100 million investment the provider plans to make in upstate New York. The company said it has invested $1 billion in upstate New York since 2000.
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