New Canaan soon could have hard data to back up what many residents know anecdotally: The town has a lot of cell service dead zones.
Even with service coming to parts of eastern New Canaan as a cellphone tower goes up on Silver Hill Hospital property, connections often are spotting in areas such as Ponus Ridge and Smith Ridge—an inconvenience as well as a public safety concern, officials say.
Soon, our town roads could undergo a “drive test” that would see a specially outfitted vehicle record cell strength on a street-by-street basis, and provide New Canaan with site-specific data that it’s never had before. At the request of the New Canaan Utilities Commission, the Board of Selectman approved $29,000 for an independent consulting firm to complete the project. The item is expected to go before the Board of Finance and Town Council in May.
So that New Canaan has data that will provide information that’s useful year-round, it’s important to get the test done while there are leaves on the trees, Tom Tesluk, the Utilities Commission member focused on cell service, told the selectmen at their April 22 meeting.
“We want to have as realistic conditions as possible for the drive test,” Tesluk said during the meeting, held in the training room at New Canaan Police headquarters.
Efforts to erect cell towers in areas that include Route 123 by Country Club Road, West School and First Presbyterian Church have been thwarted in recent years. No proposed cell tower site is met at first with unanimous approval. Town officials recently have looked at Norwalk Armory and the Transfer Station behind Lakeview Cemetery as possibilities, too.