One Man's Quest To Prove Vermont Has Terrible Cell Service

Fall 2018, Corey Chase drove 6,000 miles around his state to ground-truth what every Vermonter with a cell phone knows: there are many, many places in the state where you simply can't get a signal, not to mention the 5 megabits per second data download speeds the carriers were claiming. What Chase, a VT Department of Public Service employee, found is now part of a detailed challenge before the Federal Communications Commission that officials hope will bring federal dollars into the state to improve the wireless network. Chase says roughly two-thirds of the tests that the FCC accepted showed service less than the carriers claimed. "What we were looking at was being almost completely foreclosed from any [federal money] because our state was considered nearly completely covered with 4G LTE service," said ClayPurvis, VT's telecommunications director. "And now we've opened up a significant amount of that space."