Swan cell service extended

Residents of the Swan Valley are a little bit closer to having cellular phone coverage, as provider Cellular One recently announced the construction of a new tower near Condon.

In 2007, the Swan Lake Community Club sponsored a petition to expand service into the Swan and gathered 2,300 signatures directed at Verizon Wireless, one of Montana's most prevalent carriers. Verizon informed the group that they had no plans to expand in the Swan, so Swan Lake resident Sue Ellison started looking elsewhere and found Chinook, which is now Cellular One.

The main cause for concern, she said, stems from a 60-mile "dead zone" between the towns of Swan Lake and Seeley Lake where cell phones do not work. That's a danger not only for stranded motorists or car accident victims, but also for reporting fires or fugitives, as was the case in 2007 when two inmates escaped from the Montana State Prison in Deer Lodge were on the lam in the Swan.

Ellison said the petition garnered plenty of local signatures, but also a large number of tourists who were surprised to discover that their phones wouldn't work.

Though Cellular One's new tower won't fill the whole gap in coverage between Seeley and Swan Lakes, it's a big step in the right direction

"The way wireless networks are built, it helps to push the construction out from a central point, called a switch," said Julie Tanner, an attorney with Cellular One. "It's like making a pie crust and rolling it out from the middle."

Tanner said in Montana continuing that expansion is rooted in funding from the federally operated Universal Service Fund. That money, which comes from fees paid by wired and wireless telecommunications companies, is dedicated to expanding service to rural areas.

"It's less expensive to build out in an urban area because a cell site can provide service to a lot of customers," Tanner said. "So years ago, Congress started this (USF) to get wired service to rural customers."

Today, that money is available to wireless carriers as well, but there is a cap on how much they can take. And that is challenging in a state like Montana, where a law dictates that if a carrier is granted permission to get USF funding for an area they've identified as needing service, they must build out to cover 98 percent of the population.

"Montana has what I think is a very good rule," Tanner said. "They really want you to put your money where your mouth is."

So, Tanner said, lifting that cap would go a long way toward helping areas like the Swan.

"Cellular One is working hard on buildout to cover additional areas where Montanans can benefit from increased mobile access to services such as police, fire and emergency medical services, as well as distance learning and telemedicine," she said. "If the cap is lifted, more Montanans will have access sooner to these benefits."

Currently, Cellular One is on the lookout for appropriate parcels in the lower Swan Valley for more installations.