City of El Paso looking to change cell towers to look better, provide better coverage
EL PASO, Texas (CBS4) — Everyone has been talking about signal issues with Verizon in the last weeks.
The city is inching closer to making changes that will affect all cellphone companies.
The city told CBS4 its staff has been working on this project for about two years and not only are they trying to create cell towers that give better coverage but they’re also trying to make sure the towers are more visually appealing.
"It's very patchy sometimes. Essentially, depending on where I'm at within the region of town, I know for sure, when I'm on a phone call, it's going to die,” said Richard Ortiz.
Ortiz, who uses T-Mobile, said his signal is all over the place and he doesn’t think changes would necessarily be a bad thing.
Alex Hoffman, with the city, said in a special council meeting on Monday that staff wanted feedback from cell industry providers about changing tower height and making future towers camouflage while maintaining or improving the quality.
"What we're trying to get accomplished here is that, in residential areas, we'd like the cell towers to be a lot shorter and making them match their surroundings,” said Hoffman. "We want everyone to have access to their wireless devices. We recognize that it's part of day-to-day-life.”
Hoffman, who said he is on a mission to beautify El Paso, said he understands why some would be nervous about changes, considering how cellphone signal quality is now.
"There's always going to be the potential for affecting business as it previously was, but one of the ways we really look to prevent that is by seeing what other communities are doing. Make sure that what we're proposing is in line with what other communities have,” said Hoffman.
As the city works toward changes, Ortiz said he hopes the city really does have everyone’s best interest at heart.
"Whatever is best for the customer and the provider, people paying for the service, the city should go with that method,” said Ortiz.
In about two weeks, Hoffman said, there will be another presentation about changes and the city could decide to vote to make changes to the law.
Those changes would only apply to future cell towers, not the ones that are in place.
