Some Easton residents are expected to finally have cell service in town by August.
“Cell service is terrible now. There’s essentially no cell service in town,” said First Selectman Adam Dunsby.
People who have Verizon as a cell phone service provider will likely gain service in town within the first few weeks of August, according to Dunsby.
“They’ve told us that the turn-on date is August 15, but the town has no direct control over that,” said Dunsby. “I looked at it this morning (Tuesday) and the antennas look like they’re on and they’re making progress.”
Regional manager at Homeland Tower, Raymond Vergati said the tower could be up and running before the Aug. 15 expected launch date.
“Verizon expects construction to be completed by the first week in August,” said Vergati. “However, they are waiting on a date for fiber delivery to the site which they need to have installed to turn the site on. Once they have that transport date, they will let me know…”
Verizon is going to be on the first phone service carrier on the tower, but it won’t be the last, Dunsby explained.
“The antenna that you see now is a Verizon antenna. The Verizon company is putting that antenna on,” said Dunsby. “The first one is Verizon, they’re up there now and it’s been communicated to me that AT&T is also interested and plans to go on the tower.”
The first selectman also said the town has little involvement with this entire process of installing the 160-foot cell phone tower located at 515 Morehouse Road.
“The town’s role in this is that we lease the municipal land to Homeland Tower. Homeland Tower built the tower. So, the town of Easton owns the land, but Homeland Tower is kind of like the landlord and rents out portions of the cell tower to the carriers.”