CLEARFIELD – Citizens in the Glendale Valley area of Clearfield County will soon have improved cell phone service.
On Tuesday, the Clearfield County Commissioners approved a lease agreement between the county and Richard W. and Lynde C. Hegarty for property in Beccaria Township.
Secondly, the commissioners authorized the board chairman to execute the final site sub-lease agreement between the county and T-Mobile upon its receipt.
Commissioner Mark B. McCracken said approximately 10 years ago, citizens from Coalport, Irvona and Beccaria Township raised concerns with him about poor cell phone service.
According to him, since then, the county has been in regular contact with cell service providers. When the 911 communications tower was built on-site at the Hegarty property, county officials thought it would attract a provider, which didn’t happen.
He said now the commissioners are pleased that agreements have been prepared for final approval to permit for the installation of cell equipment on-site.
McCracken said T-Mobile’s service will be Global System for Mobiles (GSM) technology. It is the communication technology used by T-Mobile and AT&T. Verizon, Sprint and U.S. Cellular uses CDMA, he said, which is more common for Droid cell phones.
He cautioned citizens that if their cell phone uses CDMA technology, they will not see an improvement in cell signal, unless they convert to a cell phone using GSM technology.
The commissioners recognized the efforts and assistance from Joe Bigar, the county’s public safety director.
McCracken said Bigar worked diligently to secure the agreements with T-Mobile and the Hegarty’s to bring cell service to the Glendale Valley.
“The residents of those communities have dealt with poor cell service for many years,” McCracken said. “[We] hope this will provide a higher level of technology that will make these communications better.”