How does this affect me?

This affects you if you rely on cell phones and other wireless devices to connect with your family, friends, doctor, or work, and to communicate during emergencies.

Verizon Wireless has identified a significant gap in its service coverage in the Berkeley Hills. The proposed facility will provide new, reliable Verizon Wireless coverage to this gap, benefitting Berkeley Hills residents as well as visitors to local parks. The proposed facility also will add network capacity to relieve congestion on the existing Verizon Wireless network. This added capacity will improve Verizon Wireless service in a larger area of northeast Berkeley, by off-loading the current demand on existing Verizon Wireless facilities.

These enhancements will improve network service for Berkeley first responders, who rely on reliable Verizon Wireless service for vital communications across a broad range of emergency situations. In fact, all Berkeley residents and visitors will benefit from improved Verizon Wireless service, even non-Verizon Wireless customers. Should another wireless carrier’s network fail, the Verizon Wireless network is available to all users for emergency calls and text messages.

90% of US households use wireless service. With this increasing demand from residents, including those who work from home, there is a need for more facilities to meet customer needs. Citizens need access to 911 and reverse 911 services, and wireless may be their only connection. (CTIA, June 2015)

During the current pandemic, people need dependable wireless service more than ever, with increasing reliance on tele-medicine and cell phones to stay connected. During the first weeks of the current crisis, cell phone calls exceeded 800 million per day, nearly double the number on the traditional highest-call day of the year, Mother’s Day.

Camouflaged Design

Verizon Wireless has developed a truly innocuous design for its proposed wireless facility to minimize aesthetic impact. Verizon Wireless will conceal its antennas within a 50-foot facility camouflaged as a pine tree, placed near a water tank on the EBMUD property on Euclid Avenue. This “treepole” will be near a row of trees that will screen it as viewed from the north, and provide a backdrop as viewed from the south. Associated network equipment will be placed in a small fenced area nearby. Both the “treepole” and equipment area will be secure within the fenced EBMUD property, and not accessible by the public.

Photosimulations of the camouflaged “treepole” design are shown below.