Pol wants better cell service for Rockaway

From The Forum:

A state assemblyman from southern Queens called out a handful of cellphone companies before Mother Nature did it first.

Assemblyman Phil Goldfeder (D-Rockaway) penned a letter to some of the city’s biggest phone providers, including Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint, urging them to not only rebuild what Superstorm Sandy had obliterated, but to also build back stronger. He reminded the conglomerates of a time not too far in the past, when cell towers toppled to the ground and left southern Queens immobile for weeks.

“Our inability to communicate via cell phone, compounded the many issues brought on by Sandy,” Goldfeder. “Every company has a responsibility to their customers to invest in their infrastructure and towers to ensure that service will remain in place during our next potential disaster.”

The legislator has been taking steps towards better storm preparedness ever since the hurricane left most of his district in devastation and said shoring up the cell phone capabilities of his district were paramount to all other steps of recovery.

His letter invited the major phone companies to meet with his community and outline any upgrades they might have made. Goldfeder also requested that each company announce the changes they have made to prepare for future emergencies.

So far, Verizon and AT&T have returned Goldfeder’s invitation. Both companies said they would be working with Goldfeder to arrange a meet-up with community residents and outline specifically what they were doing to prepare for another storm on Sandy’s level.