Can you hear me now?

The process of expanding cell phone coverage in Carbon County began for Union Wireless on September 1 as four public hearings were held during a meeting of the Board of Carbon County Commissioners (BOCCC). All four conditional use permits, which are the first of many, were approved on a 3-2 vote.

Before holding the public hearings, Deputy Zoning Administrator Kristy Rowan informed the commissioners that Union Wireless had requested a four year period in which they could leave the existing towers while constructing the new towers. According to Rowan, this would allow time for Union Wireless to transfer the microwave equipment from one tower to another.

The current towers are around 40 feet in height with some doubling that height while others were proposed to increase to 140 feet.

“There is another caveat to that, as well. Currently, what they will be building will be less than what they are requesting to be permitted. For example, with Needles Peak, the tower that they are proposing to build will be 124 feet. However, they’re requesting to have a permitted tower height of 140 feet. So, that just allows them, in the future, to build taller and they would not have to go through the conditional use permit process,” said Rowan. “They would just simply apply for a building permit and then, with that permitted tower height that we are approving of 140 feet, as long as they do not go over that … they would just apply for a building permit.”

The four locations in the four conditional use permits were; Needle Peak, which sits five to six miles north of Encampment; Anadarko-Hanna Hill, which sits about two miles north of Elmo; Q Creek-Shirley Mountain, which sits about 22 miles northeast of Hanna; and Crawford-Weber Mesa, which sits about one mile north of Carbon County Road 702 in Baggs.

Rowan informed the BOCCC that, during the August 3 meeting of the Carbon County Planning Commission, a condition for approval of the permits was that Union Wireless provide documentation for removal of the old tower prior to construction of the new tower. Following that meeting, the Carbon County Planning and Zoning Department was informed that the cell phone provider would need to construct the new towers before demolishing the old towers.

“It’s not a simple process to move those microwave towers and they just request that they have time so that they can make that move. They have requested four years,” Rowan said. “With that said, the staff adjusted the conditions. Not just for this case, but for the rest of them, to add a condition that says the existing tower will be removed within four years from the date of approval of this conditional use permit. The applicant will submit documentation to staff. So, that will be included within all the case files.”

BOCCC Chairman John Johnson asked Declan Murphy, who was present to represent Union Wireless, why the cell phone provider needed four years to construct the new towers and demolish the old towers. Murphy explained that, especially on mountain top locations, vying for space among other providers was an issue. Part of this process involved getting relicensed with the Federal Communication Commission (FCC).

“To be frank, it probably won’t take that long but, at the same time, they’re asking for that and as they remove each tower they will be letting planning know,” said Murphy.

Murphy added that, in addition to increasing the height of the towers, the infrastructure would be improved as well as Union Wireless would be using ForceNet, a national platform to allow all emergency services to communicate.

“Union is doing a huge upgrade to all of their sites throughout Wyoming. Essentially, this level of investment is a win-win,” Murphy said. “I’ve been 20 years in this business and, for the first time, I think we’re going to see … basically the speeds that you have in urban areas are now going to be available in rural areas for a fraction.”

Johnson used Murphy’s statement about the upgrades to ask questions about coverage, or lack thereof, from Union Wireless towers even when they were in close proximity. The BOCCC Chairman used a personal example of poor coverage on his family ranch-which included dropped calls, late text messages and voicemails without record of a call-despite a cell tower being placed on Elk Mountain.

Murphy stated that he believed increasing the height of the tower would help with coverage. 

“I live in the shadows of one of your towers. I mean literally. It’s within a quarter of a mile and I drop calls,” said Johnson. “So, the height, to me, is telling me that that’s not necessarily the full case, the full answer.”

“I’m not an engineer, but I’ve been around long enough to know, each antenna has an azimuth-the direction they’re going to project the signal-and it also has a tilt,” said Murphy. “In theory, if they wanted to provide more coverage closer to the tower they could tilt the antennas downward. Therefore, the propagation would go towards the ground.”

According to Rowan, Needles Peak was the only tower among the four in the conditional use permits that received any objection which came from Encampment resident Jeb Steward. Both Needles Peak and Anadarko-Hanna Hill are currently within the sage grouse corridor, but Rowan stated that the Wyoming Game and Fish Department did not oppose the construction of the new towers.

It should be noted that Needles Peak will be including coverage for T-Mobile customers. Approximately two years ago, the BOCCC denied conditional use permits from Skyway Towers to build cell towers for T-Mobile following public outcry from Encampment residents and the Town of Encampment.

Needles Peak will be increased from 45 feet to 140 feet, Hanna Hill will increase from 32 feet to 140 feet, Q Creek-Shirley Mountain will increase from 82 feet to 100 feet and Crawford-Weber Mesa will increase from 45 feet to 100 feet.

All four conditional use permits were approved by a 3-2 vote with Johnson and Commissioner Byron Barkhurst voting nay.

“Just to clarify, my negative motions on these is because I didn’t have my questions answered in regards to whether or not it would fix the problems with the telephone dropped calls and actually enhance the overall experience of using a cell phone,” Johnson said.

The next meeting of the Board of Carbon County Commissioners will be at 2 p.m. on September 15 at the Baggs Higher Education Center in Baggs.