Synopsis
For the better part of a decade, residents in Three Springs and in many places around Westlake Village have had poor cellular coverage. In the case of Three Springs, and those in neighborhoods very near Three Springs, that is about to end. AT&T Wireless is about to start serving customers from its new tree antenna that was built a few months ago. That’s in addition to the T-Mobile antenna that has been serving customers for about a year.
Service is expected to start by the end of this month, and if all goes smoothly as early as next week.
There is room for one additional tree antenna at the site that was already approved by the City of Westlake Village. Sprint has shown no interest to date. Verizon has reportedly expressed some interest in Three Springs, but there are no plans currently in place, and even if they do move forward, it’s likely a year or more off in the future.
Timeline
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If you’re interested, here’s the sequence of events and timing that it took to get coverage in place.
In about 2005, as 3G wireless started to deploy by carriers such as AT&T, coverage in Westlake Village deteriorated. (3G only goes about 2/3 the distance the the GSM and other technologies could prior.) Residents began complaining about service degrading.
In 2007, City Council Candidate Ted Corwin highlight better cell coverage as part of his campaign platform.
In 2008, Councilman Davis and City Staff (in particular Scott Wolfe) worked with a third party to do an analysis of the City’s wireless coverage, and with such information in hand, the consultants could approach vendors to build additional coverage.
In May 2010, City of Westlake Village approved the water district property (the reservoir) above Three Springs for T-Mobile, and an additional two providers.
In July 2010, we reached out specifically to AT&T for cell coverage in Three Springs (at that time, almost 60% of Three Springs residents used AT&T wireless). By November 2010, we were able to get to the right people at AT&T to gain visibility on the needs in Three Springs, and the pre-approved site by the City of Westlake Village.
In early 2011, T-Mobile took their tree antenna live and began quality service in the area.
In Spring 2011, AT&T was making headway, but due to unnecessary delays caused by Las Virgenes Municipal Water District, the window of opportunity was lost as AT&T put a hold on any new sites, due to the economy, until well into 2012.
In December 2012, the site was not only back on track, but AT&T installed the tree antenna which has now been in place for three months.
March 2013, the site is about to be turned up and will begin service to residents in the southern portion of Westlake Village.