Dear Editor:

You buy land in Boothbay in a residential neighborhood, build a house and plant a garden ... and then a 12-story cell tower is erected five feet off of your property line.

If this sounds like a nightmare to you, then consider attending the Town of Boothbay Appeals Board meeting on January 28, or sending the board a letter of support for small cells or DAS (distributed antenna systems). The DAS approach is a proven and widely deployed alternative to large cell towers and antennas.

Outdoor DAS typically includes small, unobtrusive, low power antennas which can be placed exactly and only where needed on buildings or selected utility poles. The FCC is focusing on the benefits of DAS and DAS-related technologies. And the wireless industry is running with DAS. Even “tower” companies across America are getting in on DAS. To improve wireless service while preserving natural and historic character, DAS is being used in communities across the country.

The greater capacity of DAS handles more simultaneous phone conversations and leads to fewer dropped and unplaceable phone calls. DAS lowers radio emission exposure to you and your family from your cell phones. This is because your phones can radiate at a lower level to reach a DAS configuration than they would have to in order to reach a distant cell tower. An extra advantage of this lower energy requirement is longer phone battery life.

DAS can help stop the onslaught of cell towers and their negative impact. Visual impact from cell towers is easy to identify, and in Ocean Point, currently proposed cellular facilities will adversely affect views around residences, from nearby public lands and from surrounding roads and waterways. Imagine hiking the trails of the Ocean Point Preserve and seeing a 120-foot fake “cellular tree” towering over you! Property value and marketability can be affected adversely by nearby cell towers due to visual blemish, noise and health concerns.

We have a choice. We can allow a tower company to do our planning for us, or we can work together as a community to plan for low impact DAS approaches for region-wide benefit. Click here for more information.

Brad and Danielle Betts
East Boothbay