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RAY BROOK - Cell-phone companies say it costs them twice as much to establish new towers in the Adirondack Park than in areas outside the Park.

Representatives of AT&T, Sprint-Nextel, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless met with the state Adirondack Park Agency Board of Commissioners on Wednesday, at the APA's request, to talk about their efforts to expand wireless service in the Park.

The meeting comes as the Park Agency has seen a flood of applications for new cell towers or antennas.

"Our agenda has been dominated over the past year-and-a-half with cell tower projects," said Mark Sengenberger, the APA's deputy director for regulatory programs.

Each wireless company representative who spoke Wednesday outlined plans to further expand its network in the Park.

AT&T will be investing $6.5 million in the Park over the next few years, including a plan to provide coverage along the Adirondack Northway (Interstate 87). T-Mobile has 17 permitted cell antenna sites in various stages of development in the Park and has seven more applications pending with the APA. Verizon Wireless continues to push ahead with a network of cell sites on the Northway and has numerous applications pending for other areas of the Park.

Each company continues to make infrastructure investments even though the costs of building a wireless network in the Park are much higher.

Peter Berie, senior development manager for T-Mobile, said the average cost of co-locating a cell antenna on an existing structure in the Park is about $107,000, including development, leasing, the regulatory review process and installation. Outside the Park, the same project costs just $56,000.

"The costs are substantially more to develop a site and build it in the Adirondack Park as compared to other parts of New York," he said.

It also costs Verizon Wireless about twice as much to develop a site in the Adirondacks, according to Eugene Fassett, Verizon's executive director for upstate New York.

"When one of us makes an investment on a site in the Park, we know it's not going to make money," said Bob Holliday, vice president and general manager for AT&T Upstate New York. "A site in the Park itself is a revenue loss."

But the cell companies continue to build out their networks in the Park, largely because their customers coming to visit the Adirondacks expect to have wireless service.

"Our subscribers need to have access," Holliday said. "Ninety percent of people who come here are going to have a wireless device. You've got a lot of folks who come here and want to check up at work or at home."

The cell providers said the inability to build larger towers in the Park has made it difficult for multiple carriers to put antennas on a single tower and has led to the construction of networks of multiple towers.

Fassett said Verizon has only been able to build new towers to the height of the tree canopy, which is the minimum height antennas will be able to broadcast a signal.

"If that's the top of the tower, company number two comes along and the only place they have to locate is in the tree canopy or below the tree canopy, and that doesn't work," Fassett said. "It seems like the best solution is multiple, small sites versus multiple carriers on one single site."

Holiday said AT&T has had to put up more cell towers in the Adirondacks than in other locations because they can't get above the tree canopy. For example, he said it takes more sites to cover the Northway from Plattsburgh to Glens Falls because of height restrictions.

"You have to make a decision," Holliday said. "Do you want to see 75 sites along the Northway, or do you want to see 25 to 35 (taller) sites that handle all carriers, or a mixture of both."

If projects in the Adirondacks could cost less and wireless providers could get more height on their towers, "I think you'd see more development here," Holliday said.

One of the other challenges to wireless development in the Park is that cell phones use three different technologies, or platforms, that don't talk to each other very well.

"Think of it as Microsoft and Mac," Holiday said. "You've got to provide service from all providers in the Park if you want to serve all customers. It's not as easy as putting up one carrier's service."

That problem may be solved over time as most carriers plan to switch to a new platform being developed called LTE or long-term evolution, which is designed to increase the capacity and speed of mobile networks.

But even with that new technology, the wireless providers said they'll still need cell towers and other infrastructure.

"I don't think we're ever going to get away from terrestrial-based equipment," Berie said. "There's always going to be a need for towers."

APA Chairman Curt Stiles called the discussion helpful for the agency and its staff.

"I think it says our strategy isn't that far off," he said. "I think most folks would rather have more towers and less aesthetic impact."

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Contact Chris Knight at 891-2600 ext. 24 or cknight@adirondackdailyenterprise.com.