Vermont Cell Sites

     I was in Arlington Vermont today. Just wanted to let you know that the Nextel Tower on Tory Ln is now Live. A Nextel worker was there, I am assuming he was an engineer. I briefly spoke with him and asked if there would be more wireless providers on the tower and he said he does know that there is going to be at least one more wireless provider on the tower eventually, but he doesn't know who it will be. My Nextel phone worked great in Arlington Vermont/ Maximum Reception throughout the town. Sorry I didn't get any pics, the tower is way up on the mountain and the Nextel man was locking chains up at the bottom of the access road. I Have hiked up the mountain before when they were working on the tower so I can get a picture, but I don't think you can really see it that well from the road. Anyway, I thought this info would be helpful for you.

Jim S 

Barnet / Waterford Cell Tower	Location and Description	Carriers
Photos courtesy of Brian T.	Brian T of VT writes: This is a tower located off of I-91 between Waterford and Barnet. The tower is definitely VZW and it appears that this is the only carrier on it at this time. The tower is an SBA tower (sbasite.com)	VZW

Bellows Falls Cell Tower	Location and Description	Carriers
	Well, this tower is actually located in Walpole NH, right on the east side of the Connecticut River, opposite Bellows Falls VT. It's a Unicel, USCC tower. It's got some microwave dishes on it too, AND it also has an FM broadcast antenna on it!! Thanks to Mike F, of NECRAT for the FM transmitter callsign information!	Unicel U.S. Cellular (TDMA/AMPS, CDMA 1X) WCFR-FM 96.3 licensed to Walpole, NH

The following information is courtesy of Chuck W. of Saxtons River VT, posted May 25, 2005:

It seems that Nextel now has strong signal in Bellows Falls, Vt. I can still get 2-3 bars at my hill top cabin in Saxtons River about 4 miles west.

Bennington Cell Tower	Location and Description	Carriers
	In Bennington VT on top of Mt. Anthony is this omnidirectional 120-degree tower with at least one carrier on it. The photos are blurry, my apologies! Field tests with my phone show that it was US Cellular. Thanks to Karen G in Bennington for the name of this Mountain!!!! UNICEL GSM service seems to currently be on the 850Mhz band only in Bennington (update 4/22/05).	Either US Cellular or Unicel. Nextel is also in Bennington.

 

Berlin, VT

US Cellular went live in July 2004 in Berlin with it's PCS CDMA deployment.

Brattleboro, VT

October 2006: Word has it that Verizon Wireless is preparing to launch 1X service sometime soon.

From April 2007-2008 "Mac" from Vernon, VT writes:

This story is interesting to I91 commuters in Southern Vermont and communities around this area.

http://www.reformer.com/ci_5615711 (This article has been removed from their website!!!!)

I live across the Connecticut River from Vernon Vt. and have been waiting for Verizon to continue to build out the area. The last line in the story where it says Brattleboro Vt. has had Verizon towers turned on may be a typo. Bernardston MA has new-ish Verizon service so that may be what the author meant. In my experience Brattleboro is well covered by USCC but not Verizon, yet.

 

 

Killington, VT (including "Killington East" - Bridgewater, VT)

Click here for the KILLINGTON EAST site photos.

Killington Vermont is known to have wireless service. The carriers include Unicel (TDMA, GSM), US Cellular (CDMA) and NEXTEL.
Sprint and T-Mobile are rumored to have spotty service there as well. Information sources tell us that Sprintis located on top of Pico Mountain, not Killington. T-Mobile has two towews along the Killington access road.

Thanks to Tim C, there are now 8 photos of the Bridgewater Vermont NEXTEL monopole stealth tower site located on Laber Road (a.k.a. Vaughn Road).
There is also another cell site on Rogers Road in Bridgewater with Nextel, Unicel, and Verizon installed.

 

 

Leicester, VT

 

 

Notes for Ludlow and the surrounding area for Unicel TDMA/AMPS coverage,
provided by Larry M. from Vermont
(4/18/05)

Though the Unicel site advertises service in the '05149' ZIP code as being "Grahamville" - the correct spelling is "Grahamsville". The coverage is limited to the very small area of the Village of Ludlow itself. It vanishes on Route 103 north of the Village by the Dug Road intersection [the Village line], and on Route 103 south of the Village in the area of Smithville. Coverage is not provided in the Lakes area, Grahamsville, North Hill, or most of South Hill sections of Ludlow. There is no coverage at all in Cavendish, Proctorsville, Mount Holly, or any other of the surrounding towns.

For the GSM rollout: There are rumours a new tower on Ludlow Mountain [according to a source with Okemo Mountain], but haven't seen any local permitting for it announced [Ludlow has a local telecommunications facility ordinance].

Thanks Larry for this input!!

 

Lyndon, VT

 

 

Ryegate, VT

Verizon Wireless has three towers in town.

One tower is above the truck stop in Ryegate, on the west side of I-91 after the bridge over the Wells River.
Another is near the Barnet town line. A third cell tower is up on land owned by William W---- and offer service up and over to Route 302.
Read the news article here.

Sharon, VT (On I-89 between White River Junction and Sharon)

On January 4, 2007-2008 Verizon Wireless has announced it has activated a new cell site providing service to the area.
You can read the news article here.
The funny thing is that the press release talks about Verizon's new EV-DO VCAST offerings, yet Verizon is not providing VCAST service to this part of Vermont (and all indications are that they will not be for some time, if ever).

 

St. Johnsbury, VT

No photos from any sites yet... but someday!!! You got any? Please send them to me!! Email Me

 

Updated April 10, 2006, from Mr X.:

Nextel and US Cellular are now active in North Church in St. Johnsbury VT
Nextel also has a tower on Fairbanks Mtn. in the area.

Verizon Wireless has added an array to the Nextel/US Cellular tower
in Berlin Corners (this must have happened recently)

There is a brown-stick between St Johnsbury and Wells River VT, but
I don't know who it belongs to yet.

News from June 17, 2005 from the Caledonian Record:
(Also, thanks to Kyle S. from Vermont for this information)

A 107-foot-tall Verizon cell tower designed to resemble a pine tree on New Boston Road in St. Johnsbury which is about 1,250 feet northeast of the intersection of Mt. Pisgah and New Boston Road.
A 12-foot by 30-foot equipment building will be erected as well as a fence to enclose the tower and building.
The tower will hold a variety of 12-panel antennas on a triangular platform and provide service from St. Johnsbury Center to Lyndonville.
Verizon plans to add one more rooftop tower in the area soon that will provide cell phone service to downtown St. Johnsbury.
If approved, the tower is expected to be ready in 2006.

---

St Johnsbury Generally has good coverage, but due to the "rolling hills" nature of the surrounding area, signals can sometimes be severely attenuated.

---

Stowe, VT

No photos from any sites yet... but someday!!! Got any to give to me? Please submit them!!!! Email Me

Update August 2007: Stowe is rumored to have a new Verizon Wireless tower present to provide service., It is unknown at this time if service is live or not.

Formerly, Verizon Wireless has little to no coverage in and around Stowe, VT.


If you look at my UNICEL cell site listings for Stowe Vermont, you will see that there are three cell site locations: Mt. Mansfield, Stowe Lower Village, and Stowe (the exact placement of this site is unknown at this time).
A question came in to me in November 2005 asking about GSM coverage for Stowe in regards to international roaming. This person had a quad-band unlocked GSM phone with a UK Vodafone SIM (contract; non pre-pay account).

As of November 2005, I have no proof that Stowe VT does in fact have GSM service active via Unicel, but I have also not had any complaints that GSM service does NOT exist in this area. Hence, my conclusion is that Unicel does in fact have GSM service, and if someone travels there with a UK Vodafone SIM, and an unlocked phone, they will in fact have GSM and possibly GPRS service.

I would not bet my life on this, nor would I bet my life on the feature set (Message Waiting Indicator, SMS message send or recieve, etc.) and it's compatibility with Unicel when it comes to international agreements/gateways/functionality. Voice calls should definitely work inbound, but outbound may be a challenge if Vodafone does not have an agreement with Unicel.

I have two UK Voafone SIM cards that I can successfully use on the Cingular Orange and Blue networks in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. However, in both MTA's, I DO NOT have GPRS data capability (probably because it's Vodafone "top-up" pay as you go). I also cannot make any outbound calls with the SIMs, but I can successfully receive inbound voice calls.

I tried to use the Vodafone SIMs on Unicel (August 2007) and I cannot get the phone to register on their nertwork. It works fine with T-Mobile, but n ot with Unicel. This may be a pre-pay SIM issue only, but then again, maybe not. Your best bet is to call Vodafone before you travel into Unicel territory to see if you can work on their network.

 

 

Wheelock, VT

In town somplace is a stealth monopole (100' tall) that Verizon offers service on. Anyone have a photo or more info?

Read an article discussing Wheelock, VT and Verizon.

 

Windsor VT

Thanks to Willy, the truck driver, it has been confirmed that Nextel is operational in Windsor, VT.
(Posted 1/12/05)

Check out the Mt Ascutney information as well, as Ascutney is in Windsor.

 

 

OBSERVATIONAL NOTES FOR Rt 7 BETWEEN RUTLAND AND BURLINGTON:

Posted back in August/September 2004 by Mike (website proprietor):

The following are some notes about Vermont cell sites between Rutland and Burlington along Rt 7. Unfortunately I was unable to take pictures while riding my motorcycle along Rt 7 on a very hot and humid day, so these notes will have to suffice for now.

Many of the towns along Rt 7 house cell antennas in church steeples, and I was especially impressed with the amount of Farm Silo's that had cell antennas mounted on their sides. The use of these structures must be a boom for the farmers in terms of income. Between Rutland and Burlington, I may have seen a couple of traditional towers with cell antennas on them, but I must have seen at least 10 or 12 barn silo's, most of which were crested at a hilltop with incredible panoramic views of the surrounding countryside.

Verizon Wireless has full digital 800Mhz coverage between Rutland and Burlington, and Sprint PCS claims they do as well (from their recent coverage maps). Unicel is also present along this strip of road (about 70 miles total).

I really wanted to snap off a few shots of how well the carriers did in their installations for the silo's, but I was reluctant to stop due to the heat and being in full leather dress. I guess these photos will come at some future date.

Update August 28, 2007: Geoff of Vermont has submitted Barn Silo photos from Rt 7!!!

 

 

OTHER INFORMATION

 

 

 

 

 

GENERAL VERMONT COVERAGE NOTES

 

Added August 27, 2007:
Mr X writes:
Unicel got approval for a tower in Cabot, VT on a silo.

http://www.timesargus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070813/NEWS02/708130347/1003/NEWS02

This should solve a gap in coverage on Route 2 between Plainfield and Danville, VT.

Their Act 250 (Vermont environmental) application had a couple of
interesting details. They are working on a tower in Hardwick, which is
in the area and a dead zone for all carriers, and also are planning a
UMTS overlay on the Cabot site (and i'm assuming, their whole VT network)

 

GSM & GPRS NOTES
From Joel F. of Vermont, on 5/1/05, who states:

GPRS is running on Unicel and GSM has full coverage from Waterbury to Stowe to Morrisville on Route 100. I have also made it from Burlington to Exit 2 on 89 on a single call without dropping (external car antenna). It is much improved...

 

(Thanks to PJ Cioffi of Vermont for this info):

I-91 between St Johnsbury and White River Jct now has more coverage (I used to drive that stretch driving too and from school a million times..as well as rt 2 west) now than it used to. Verizon has put a tower somewhere near Wells River. Though there is still no coverage in wells river (at the truck stop) on 91 before and after exit 17 I can get 4 bars of digital. There is also digital VZW coverage near Bradford on I 91. VZW applied for towers in Ryegate and Hartford VT.

http://www.caledonianrecord.com/pages/local_news/story/bad34347c

Is a good article discussing more.

Rt 2 has some analog (Unicell i think) coverage just east of Marshfield VT to West Danville. VZW Digital then kicks in in Danville. I will get a picture of the St J VZW tower when I go up there this weekend. I will also try to get a pic of the tower on Burke Mtn which is supposedly VZW but works horribly.

Rutland (where i am from) does not have ATnT service as far as i know. If they do no one is selling it...same as US Cellular. US Cellular is alive and well in Woodstock as of about 2 weeks ago. US Rt 4 Killington to just west of Woodstock still has basically no coverage. The US Cellullar tower does not hit Quechee.

As you said Rt 7 from RUT to BTV is covered well by VZW. I have carried a call the entire time while driving.

Berlin (where i work one day a week) has the most spotty coverage of anywhere I have ever seen. Montpelier is covered, Barre is decent, but Berlin is spotty. "hospital hill" is good, but parts of rt 12 are not covered by anyone. (My parents have a unicell phone and i have brought that around with me while on trips to check signals). Ludlow is also covered well by US Cellular thanks to the Okemo Mtn tower. Otherwise rt 103 is not really covered except for a little bit of Sprint service I was told. The major 4 counties in southern VT have only US Cellular or Unicell coverage. I know Rt 7 and I 91 are covered pretty well there by both companies (US Cellular being the best).

Rt 7 south from Rutland is not covered until about Manchester (Unicel and US Cellular, Ithink).

 

NOTES FROM NEAR MONTPELIER (Thanks to Dave T):

For coverage: There is almost nothing from Plainfield Vt to St Johnsbury on Vt Rt 2. And nothing but a few blips from St J to Bradford on I-91.

Other notes: UNICEL GSM service seems to currently be on the 850Mhz band only. (update 4/22/05, thanks to Rick K.).
Rick K from Montpelier VT emailed and said: I do have an ancient Nokia 5190 GSM 1900-only phone from T-Mobile. (Actually, it was from VoiceStream in the Washington D.C. area, before they were bought out by T-Mobile.) I stopped by the Unicel office in Montpelier and asked if "anything happened to GSM coverage in Montpelier in the last month." They said that they've been switching off the 1900 MHz service and only doing 850 MHz. That must be what has happened in Montpelier. I have T-Mobile; my phone sais "USA 89" is the carrier. I used the phone all winter with no serious problems. About a month ago, service completely stopped in downtown Montpelier. I don't think it's a change in carrier agreements between USA 89 and T-Mobile, or my phone, because I can still use the same phone in White River Junction (phone also says USA 89). The T-Mobile detailed coverage map for downtown Montpelier has the entire downtown area in "No Coverage". The surrounding area is listed as Roaming.

 

NOTES FROM Higate (Thanks to Tom F):

In Highgate on spring street (toward the end of route 7) along the highway, there is something out of place. There is a silo with a false top. Seems they added about 10 feet to the top but you can still see the old one under it. It has a door that is large enough for a person to walk in standing up. There is also a new trailer shaped shed with 3 very large bundles of wire coming out of it and up along the side of the silo and into the false top.

 

MORE NOTES FROM BRIAN T. OF VERMONT
(Added August 24, 2006, Updated 12/6/06)

There are some other towers I will get pics of as soon as I can. One of them is another better disguised Pine tree right before exit 17 (Wells River) right above the truck stop (See the Ryegate town link above). This one seems to have 2 carriers (VZW and I think, US Cellular). Another is a new tower in St. J. This one is on Fairbanks Mountain and appears to have only 1 carrier - Nextel I think because I get no coverage from it whatsoever.

 

Oh yes, if anyone is interested in contributing photos or just information of any cell sites/coverage in Vermont, please contact me, I would very much like to share them on this web site!

 

Have you seen the Cell Guru's website on Vermont coverage? If not, please check it out here.

 

www.necellularsites.net