I unfortunately could not attend the meeting in Hillsborough on Monday, 8/21/2017 regarding SB-649. But I hope that I can state my viewpoint here, since this issue is of serious importance to me and my family.

Getting new wireless antennas cannot happen soon enough for me. Please kindly read the appeal I sent to our Hillsborough emailing list, explaining my reasons.
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I hope that my response is understood for what it is — a serious situation whereby we have no cell phone communication not just from our house on Skyfarm, but also in the half-a-mile radius of our house. While a microcell would solve the situation in the house itself, walking and driving is also critical to our family. However, there is no service. Our provider is AT&T, but I fear that another provider can do no better. When I walk our family dog along Skyfarm several times a day, it is critical for me to be able to use that time to make calls to my aging parents and related to the various house chores — that is the only time I have for phone calls. However, with no service (or one bar, which is never enough to have any sense of a connection, and which often deteriorates to “no service”), I am unable to use my cell phone. What is even more concerning is that the phone is practically useless in emergency situations, unless I hike up approximately a half a mile to Butternut. Hillsborough Boulevard is no better — no service! This is not reasonable, since emergency calling to family is the most important use of the cell phone. Because of these considerations, I am very much in favor of installing the most powerful available transmitters as soon as possible to better service our area. Over the ten years of our family’s life in Hillsborough, the cell coverage started as poor but adequate, then later became barely working, and now “now service” is the state of affairs. In comparison, I get four bars in the mountains in Lake Tahoe. I am hoping that whoever has influence in getting the new towers added to our areas will understand our plight and help make this happen as soon as possible. Thank you so much for your time, your understanding, and your attention.
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In summary, having a “no service” situation almost everywhere in Hillsborough is not good and needs to be remedied. I hope that it happens ASAP.

Sincerely,
–Alex Sherstinsky (hillsboroughtogether@globus.com)