I firmly believe that the residents of Hubbard County and Park Rapids are being taken advantage of by the cell phone providers in our area. Recently, I noted a trend in poor service evenings and weekends resulting in my calls suddenly dropping two or three minutes into my calls. Text messages would suddenly be undeliverable. And it would take a minute or more after I dialed for the call to go through, only to have it drop a couple minutes later. I called my AT&T technical support department and was told that the closest tower to Park Rapids is actually in Wadena County, south of Menahga, 15-20 miles away.
The rep also told me that the tower was being maxed out daily, especially after 4 p.m. and weekends, the same times I was having problems. He said they were getting hundreds of complaints and trouble tickets. In looking, he could see no planned construction on new towers to assist this. This is not a problem for AT&T alone as recent storms took out Verizon towers leaving sheriff’s deputies without service or with limited service. These companies are playing the averages and not realizing what the tourist trade does to the service. The Minnesota State Fair requires portable cell sites to accommodate the service needs there. Where are the portable cell sites for Hubbard County during our influx? I was refused credit when I called to complain for the third week in a row. Recent storms affecting Otter Tail, Wadena, Cass and Crow Wing counties proved the life and death nature of the problem.
I was operating an amateur radio Skywarn net from my home in Hubbard County for Wadena County. That storm knocked out other control centers in that county. Amateur radio operators were hitting our towers and relaying reports of funnels, tornados, hail, and wind damage. I was unable to get through to the sheriff’s offices and the National Weather Service to relay reports because my calls wouldn’t go through or were dropped. I am calling on the Park Rapids City Council and the Hubbard County Board to each issue resolutions calling on the cell providers, particularly AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint to increase their cell capacity and to add towers in the Park Rapids area to insure calls can reach emergency personnel in a crisis. We deserve better service. Afterall, we pay the same as the rest of the world.
Mike McIlheran Park Rapids
