MANCHESTER – Some further progress has been made concerning cell phone service in the community which some residents feel has been put on hold for far too long.
Business Administrator Brandon Umba stressed that the delays haven’t been on the part of the governing body but with one of the two cell phone suppliers that are utilizing a tower within the community.
“I’ve promised the members of the public that as we hear things about the cell phone tower, I would report it. We received an e-mail from American Tower (owner of the cell phone tower) and it came with a sketch of our updated proposal of our 13 by 23 pad.”
Umba read the e-mail saying the firm asked for the township to “review and provide approval as soon as possible so it could move forward with this location at the negotiated rate of $665 a month for the land portion and 10 percent of the revenue share.”
“The next step would be receiving your approval,” Umba said, adding that the Township Council will review it. This is in regards to AT&T coming to that tower.
“Verizon has installed all their equipment and they are looking to go live in April,” he reported. “They are just waiting for the circuit for electricity in order to use the equipment.”
Umba explained previously that the township was “working with Verizon on a launch date as to when that equipment will go live and everything is ready to go.”
AT&T however was a different matter. Last month he said that the firm was paying the town, but not enough. “They asked us to come onto the tower for 50% off of what everyone else was paying and they wanted double the space that was allotted which would increase the space of the area.”
“They (AT&T) wanted to pay half of what was required to go on the tower and also to use two pad sites instead of one. Not only would we not be able to bring another person on that site but it would increase the cell service on the tower,” Umba added.
The administrator added, “that is why the township is working diligently as we want to get AT&T on there but we don’t want them to be pigs. We don’t want them to take up the entire land area and we also think they should pay their fair share because everyone else is paying their fair share.”
Umba said in February, “we are working fast to get AT&T on that tower and the hope is to have them on by the end of the year.” He noted that while AT&T was a “work in progress. We need to make sure we have room to get other carriers on that tower.”
