Rebecca Mars has never had problems with cellphone coverage at her Bayfield home until a few weeks ago.
“Initially we didn’t have any problems,” said Mars, an AT&T customer. “A couple of weeks ago, (problems) started. I started randomly dropping calls, and repeatedly, within the same phone conversation.”
On April 11, Mars said she lost cell service for half an hour while she was at home. She doesn’t have time to call AT&T to figure out what the problem might be, she said.
AT&T customers in areas around Florida Mesa, Bayfield and Forest Lakes have all lodged similar complaints, saying their cell service has gone downhill during the last month.
Forest Lakes resident Dave Minton said his phone now drops calls at the bottom of Farmington Hill, near the hill just west of Bayfield and through a segment of Colorado Highway 172 near Oxford. He had gotten used to having spotty service at his home in Forest Lakes but now has lost service all the way from Forest Lakes to Bayfield.
It turns out there is an explanation for AT&T users. The cellphone company has been doing network upgrades in the Bayfield area that caused issues with two cellphone towers, according an email statement from Susan Sears, a spokeswoman with AT&T. Customers may notice dropped calls or minor service disruptions during the work, Sears wrote.
The company has been working on local cell sites this year to increase mobile Internet capacity in response to growing demand, said Scott Huscher, another spokesman for AT&T.
Issues with one cellphone tower were resolved Monday, and technicians are working to fix the second one as quickly as possible, Sears wrote.
The issues have not affected the operations of La Plata County’s Office of Emergency Management or the Durango-La Plata Emergency Communications Center, officials with both offices said.
The 911 call center hasn’t noticed any notable or significant increase in dropped calls, said Phil Campbell, communications director with the Emergency Communications Center.
Even so, cell-service issues have become a frequent topic of conversation among locals, said Bill Counley, who lives on Florida Mesa.
“The people I work with are all complaining. We went to a meeting last night, and people brought it up there, too,” Counley said.
ecowan@durangoherald.com
