September 20, 2023 By Carol Britton Meyer
The Select Board, supported by a citizens group that introduced itself this week, is working hard to resolve the townwide issue of poor cell service, although it’s worse in some parts of Hingham than in others.
In the meantime, there’s some good news — which came as a surprise to most of the large group of citizens who attended last night’s meeting, during which Assistant Town Administrator Art Robert made a “cellular service improvement presentation.”
Those who find themselves without cell phone service during an emergency can reach “911” via a text message when a voice connection is not possible. “The text will be picked up by the closest cell tower, regardless of the carrier,” Robert explained.
The overall poor cell service is “an important issue for the town, from both a safety and economic development perspective [when, for instance, a business cannot accept or make calls],” Board Chair Liz Klein said.
Robert reported that there have been a number of discussions with providers about possible town-owned property on which to potentially install equipment to enhance cell service. These could include the area of the Bathing Beach, Central Fire Station, or DPW headquarters off Fort Hill Street.
However, he said, due to height requirements, the search is still on for an appropriate location.
Residents are ‘frustrated and concerned’
Beth Rice, speaking for the citizens group, said those who have joined this effort to improve cell service are “frustrated and concerned. We teamed up to try to take the first steps to learn more about this issue. Our objective is to help.”
After conducting their own audit of cell service around town, it was learned that many areas of Hingham are experiencing problems for various reasons. “All the carriers in Hingham have places in town with poor service,” Rice said. “We have a real problem, and the fix won’t be immediate. We want to be part of the solution.”
That said, she noted that “providers want happy customers.”
Mark Cullings, a member of the citizens group, explained that it got its start following many social media posts and the Hingham Downtown Association’s interest in the issue. “An online petition generated 1,000 responses over a short period of time,” he said. “Our idea is to try to get the facts out there. We need to keep the pressure on. It’s a shared issue with surrounding towns. It’s not just Hingham, and we want to help.”
While supportive of the effort to resolve this difficult situation, Select Board Member Joseph Fisher, a former Zoning Board of Appeals member, cautioned that when proposals for new cell towers went before the ZBA in the past, “there was community resistance. Nobody wants one in their backyard. Perhaps we should review our zoning bylaws to determine where it’s appropriate to site cell towers.”
‘It’s up to the providers to move forward’
Town officials have met with the service providers at different times “and have offered them some pretty good alternatives to address the problem,” board member William Ramsey said. “We’ve suggested [possible locations] for medium-range towers in dead zones [and other ideas], but the provider has yet to act. It’s up to them to move forward.”
Another possibility, he said, is to reach out to Congressman Stephen Lynch since this is a federally regulated industry. “We’ll continue to make noise until the problem is resolved.”
While the board “can’t just make this happen, we will continue to work on our end,” Board Chairman Liz Klein promised.
Cell Service is getting worse instead of better. I get complaints from family and friends that they can’t hear me or that the phone is garbled. Downtown doesn’t have any service and in Central Hingham, my phone or car dashboard has “No Service” often. This is getting very old and has gone on too long.