To the editor:
Leelanau County’s livability, health, safety, and economy are constrained by the utter lack of reliable cell phone service–especially in the summer months when the population swells and it’s impossible to place a call, text, or use data. Is revenue lost when potential customers can’t contact a local store and decide to skip the takeout meal, or order from a big-box online retailer later when they have WiFi? Are students on long school bus rides missing out on the ability to do homework online? Are working people’s lives made inefficient or even endangered by having to leave a location to go hunt for WiFi? Do we worry about our loved ones driving home on a snowy night with bad cell service? Yes, yes, yes, and yes. The county government, the cell carriers, and the MPSC must not keep delaying action. Build a tower on the government center. Build discreet microcells in the villages. The (fiber) infrastructure, demand, and money are waiting; this is doable. Ben Mothershead Leland
