Almost everyone on Chappy would like cell service to be better, though some already have good cell service in their Chappy homes.

The primary purpose of a current selectman’s survey is to determine whether the majority of Chappy property owners would prefer the construction of a Chappy cell tower which I think would be 160 to 180 feet in height (same height as a 16 to 20-story building) or a much less invasive DAS system. Neither solution would be perfect. A recent map of cell coverage with a 180 foot tower did not show coverage in the Enos lots where there are many houses.

But with a DAS installation it is easy to add another pole to achieve coverage in an area where needed. Sadly, the ill-advised distribution of a very preliminary map of a first pass Chappy DAS has misled many into thinking that good coverage cannot be achieved with a DAS. This is totally incorrect.

A DAS system would require the addition of roughly six-foot wire antennas to existing and or new telephone poles. Other equipment is attached lower on the poles. They have them in Chilmark and Aquinnah and are noticed only if one really looks. Most would be along the roads where the poles now are. About 30 poles in all would be used which would be one every 120 acres. New poles would be just above the tree line at 40 feet. To better cover the beaches, the use of osprey poles is being considered. Apparently osprey and the DAS gear can live on the same pole and lower poles can be used because the trees are lower. Exploring this possibility was another of Verizon’s creative ideas.

Although I am not on the Edgartown cell committee I have attended most weekly meetings, which are open to the public.

One committee member seems to me to be convinced that the selectmen should immediately award a contract to a company now working with AT&T to construct a cell tower on town land off Litchfield Road near the bend at Green Pastures. This would tower over the roughly 40 feet high trees from many points of view on Chappy.

The other four members seem to me to be either adamantly opposed to such a tower or willing to wait until an engineering plan for a DAS system that Verizon has been working on since their chief engineer for the Northeast spent a day on Chappy on July 24 has been completed. I was invited to spend the day with him and the committee members. He seemed understanding of why many do not want a tower on Chappy and agreed to invest in the engineering so that a plan would be ready to move on as soon as some of the sizable annual budget was available to move ahead. DAS costs carriers more than towers but they are used in special cases such as was done in Chilmark. The Verizon people are generously exploring this and many of us really appreciate this effort on their part. They are said to be the largest cell carrier in the country with coverage in more places than any other carrier.

If the majority respond to the survey with no objections to a tower, it increases the possibility that the selectmen will award the contract and we will have a tower on Chappy for decades. It is possible that the Edgartown planning board and or the Martha’s Vineyard Commission would not approve such a structure in an area with a 26-foot building height restriction. If a tower is awarded it is unlikely that it would be built within two years, if at all. But this could very well negate the possibility of a DAS being further developed.

Comcast is now laying cables and their service will be initially connected to 189 Chappy homes well before this time next year. With Comcast it is apparently quite easy to add something that will greatly improve cell phone service in one’s home. Another immediate option that works for many with a weak signal is an item called Zboost which costs between $200 and $400 and is available on Amazon. These are also available for cars.

I hope that survey responses will not give the selectmen an incentive to push toward the immediate construction of a cell tower on Chappy, when other alternatives that are equally effective for Chappy and are more aesthetically and environmentally acceptable are being engineered by Verizon. I think that if the people of Chappy were able to get Comcast to cable Chappy, we will also find a way to get a DAS system.

Lionel Spiro
Chappaquiddick