You’ve never had a better excuse for not responding to the work group chat.
As complaints about rampant cellular network outages in Longmont — and across Boulder County — continue to mount, local and national leadership is stepping in.
Yesterday, Congressman Joe Neguse and Senators John Hickenlooper & Michael Bennet sent a letter to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr urging the Federal Communications Commission, as well as the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, to meet with cell carriers immediately to find a solution.
Cell or High Water
The outages have reportedly been spiking since late 2024, when Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T were ordered to modify their signals received within the Table Mountain Radio Quiet Zone — an area of land where a federal government research facility studies radio waves. As required by law, that facility has a 50-mile radius that limits external radio signals.
Since then, at least 100 formal complaints have been filed with the FCC, as well as countless others on social media and with Longmont City Council. In the last two weeks, news coverage of the issue has skyrocketed, too.
Longmont Mayor Susie Hidalgo-Fahring also got involved. At last Tuesday’s city council meeting, she reassured residents that action is being taken. She mentioned she is in ongoing conversation with federal agencies, private carriers, and staff from Neguse, Bennet, and Hickenlooper, as well as Boulder County Commissioner Ashley Stolzmann.
The mayor also noted that congressional teams planned to meet directly with T-Mobile “tomorrow or the next day” to discuss a path forward.
“If I could get out there and literally lift up the tower and move it over, I would,” Hidalgo-Fahring said.