Drivers who frequent Saltsburg Road through Murrysville are likely familiar with the “dead zone,” where their Verizon call is all but guaranteed to drop as they travel between Mamont and Ashbaugh roads.
Verizon expects to address that gap in coverage by installing a 125-foot tower at a property on Lasher Court.
Murrysville council unanimously approved a conditional- use permit April 2 for Verizon and contractor Towers LLC to build the tower, along with a fenced area of infrastructure.
“We were initially looking to co-locate this equipment, because your ordinance states if there are any usable structures within a quarter-mile, such as a water tower, we’re to use them,” said Joe Cortez, representing Verizon and the contractor. “Unfortunately, there aren’t any tall structures within 2 miles.”
In the past, cell towers were typically developed along interstates, Cortez said.
“Around here, you have a large site in Monroeville, in Greensburg; you had a 450-foot tower in Green Tree and Cranberry, and the vast majority of use those towers got was voice calls,” he said. “But as we’re getting to the fifth generation of wireless, voice is now used the least often across the network. People working from home need to access the network for their business, and younger people are primarily using their mobile devices for entertainment.”
More than 74% of U.S. households are wireless only, Cortez said.
The tower would be a minimum of 200 feet from any property line, and the nearest house is roughly 850 feet away from the proposed site.
Resident Jeannette Pavlick asked if there was any way council could ensure 5G technology was not installed on the line. Both Cortez and council members said the municipality has limited authority because cell towers are largely governed under the 1996 Telecommunications Act.
Municipalities are not allowed to prohibit provisional wireless service that is meant to address health and safety issues. Cortez noted the tower’s presence would ensure the success of calls to 911 within the roughly 1-square-mile gap.
“We can tell them where to put it, but we can’t dictate the type of technology they use,” council President Dayne Dice said. “Even if we did deny it, we’d just be forestalling the inevitable.”
Councilman Carl Stepanovich asked if the new tower would help boost the cell signal for visitors to Murrysville Community Park, where spotty service has been an issue.
“It’s possible,” Cortez said. “But that’s not the primary purpose for it. Verizon has been working on a lease and I’d say a future application that may come before you would be for a tower located within the park.”