A cell tower that went up about three years ago in northeastern New Canaan this week received transmission equipment from a popular carrier.
The Soundview Lane cell tower after Verizon transmission equipment was added to it, on March 28, 2023. Photo published with permission from its owner
Verizon installed its equipment on the Soundview Lane “monopine” tower on Monday and Tuesday, according to property owner Keith Richey.
AT&T has been on the tower for more than one year, Richey said, though the overwhelming majority of New Canaan mobile device users appear to be Verizon customers.
“Now they will finally see a benefit from having this tower,” he told NewCanaanite.com.
The addition of Verizon service is expected to fulfill the promise of the tower at the dead-end of Soundview, overlooking St. Luke’s School, to finally bring coverage to the northeast quadrant of town.
Asked for a comment, Ray Vergati, regional manager of the cell tower development company that oversaw the project, Homeland Towers, said, “Homeland Towers is very proud as to how well this stealth monopine looks and blends into the landscape. I’ve received much correspondence over the years from residents in this area, typically the elderly, expressing their concerns with the lack of cell coverage. With Verizon’s pending installation, we are glad to see that Verizon subscribers as well as the first responders will now have reliable service in this area.”
Richey said it took A&T a few weeks to go live once its equipment was installed, and that Verizon may be looking at the same timeline.
“The problem is you hear about these supply shortages and engineer shortages,” Richey said. “All this stuff should have been so much quicker, but because of one thing and another evidently they got stalled for months. I don’t know if it was Eversource or Frontier, but somebody did not get a line out here, there was no power or signal to the base or something simple. Verizon had signed up about a year ago.”
The Connecticut Siting Council approved the Soundview Lane tower on Richey’s property in September 2020, following years of public hearings and opposition from some neighbors. In reaction to the process, the town’s Planning & Zoning Commission adopted new regulations related to applications for cell infrastructure on private property (the town attorney later questioned their enforceability).
In addition to the Soundview Lane tower, the Siting Council in December approved a tower that’s planned for 1837 Ponus Ridge, near the intersection with Dan’s Highway. That tower is expected to fill a coverage gap in northwestern New Canaan. It’s unclear whether a third tower, proposed for the woods behind West School, will move forward, following pushback from some selectmen, Town Councilmen, neighbors and parents.
Asked whether his own neighbors who had opposed the monopine on Soundview still complain about it, Richey said no.
“People who use AT&T say, ‘Oh this is the greatest thing ever, it really made it so much better for the house,’ ” Richey said. “But for people who have got Verizon, it hasn’t done a thing.”
For Mr. Richey to say his neighbors no longer complain about his Cel Tower on Soundview Lane is simply not true. Many neighbors no longer speak with Mr. Richey so he wouldn’t know what they think three years after its construction. The quotes in this story by Mr. Richey and Homeland Towers are a blatant PR play to try to say all is well, after they have scarred an otherwise beautiful corner of New Canaan. For the record our Verizon service has not improved.
Mr Wiley, Verizon service has not improved because the Verizon service on the tower has not yet been activated. Actually reading the article would have made that clear. Living in this area of NC, and frequently walking and biking in the neighborhood of the tower, I have seen no sign of the “scarring” you mention. In fact, I was under the impression that the tower was still a proposal and had not yet been built.
And for the record, Verizon just installed its equipment, so it may take a while for its service to improve, which is exactly what Mr. Richey said.
Perhaps those few who are still opposing the attractive cell tower on Soundview have forgotten the many public health and safety problems
that will be eradicated by proper cell phone coverage in areas that could not be previously reached . I will start with electrical outages, loss of landline, the inability of police and fire departments to have a connection, road accidents along Laurel Road and last, but, not least, the problem of having to get in one’s car and drive to a spot for a proper connection. I am sure there are many others but it is not necessary to elaborate further. Really??? It is time to praise, not condemn this overdue addition to New Canaan .
1) Town motto is “Next Station to Heaven”, not “Can you Hear Me Now”
2) Good neighbors don’t build cell towers against their neighbors’ objections. It’s a shame NC now harbors such selfish individuals.
3) Industrial installations for RF/MW propagation do not belong in our beautiful town.
4) Paid shills for corporate interests have low levels of credibility
5) there is zero evidence cell phone coverage has negatively impacted anyone’s health in NC. A weak sales tactic.
6) Brain cancer showed up in Hiroshima 10 years after the A-Bomb dropped.
7) It’s about Verizon selling streaming video for profit, not cell phone calling coverage.
8) The proposed tower is 180 ft, as tall as Niagra Falls, the Eifel Tower, and the Space Shuttle.
Option N: NEVER! NO TOWER ON WEST SCHOOL PROPERTY OR IN PRECIOUS WETLANDS. NEVER!