Cherry Hills Village's Cell Service Fix Is Waiting on a Third Carrier

At the October 6 Cherry Hills Village City Council meeting, City Manager Cramer reported that Arium Networks, formerly Crown Castle, had submitted right-of-way permit applications to upgrade the antenna network that carries most of the village's cell signal. He described what the work would look like on the ground: steel poles placed next to existing wooden poles. He also told council that the applications did not guarantee any equipment would go in, though they were "a substantial step in the right direction."

The engineering has been studied since 2023. What decides whether your calls stop dropping on your own street is a business question: how many wireless carriers agree to pay for the upgrade, and whether the city covers the difference if not enough of them do.

Four Years From Survey to Permit Application

The city has been working on this longer than most residents may realize. Here is the timeline from the city's September 15, 2026 staff memo and the October council packet:

Why the Signal Is Weak in the First Place

The 2024 Citywide Cellular Communications and Fiber Study is the clearest public explanation of why a phone can show one bar inside a house on a large lot ten minutes from the Denver Tech Center. HR Green built radio-frequency models of current coverage that accounted for terrain and tree cover. The study's resident survey drew 134 responses. It found "a strong correlation with the RF coverage maps regarding poor coverage," consistently poor speed test results across most carriers, and broad dissatisfaction with reliability, speed and price. In the same survey, 86% of respondents supported the city getting involved.

The infrastructure behind those numbers is thin. AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile all appear in the study as tenants on the same 12 outdoor nodes, owned by Crown Castle. Beyond those nodes, each carrier relies on rooftop sites in the communities around Cherry Hills Village. That system is a distributed antenna system, or DAS, and it carries only 4G. The study described the 4G DAS as "not future proof and not suited to the large area of Cherry Hills Village and the foliage density."

A large area and a mature tree canopy are being served by a dozen antenna nodes running a technology one generation behind.

The Tower Plan, and the 70-Foot Line

HR Green's answer was height. The study recommended one centrally located 200-foot tower or three 100-foot towers spread through the city. The 200-foot option went no further because it would have required a large change to city code. The three-tower option also needed a code change, raising the maximum cellular tower height from 70 feet to 100 feet, though the study called that "much less of an increase."

The study priced several designs. Two 100-foot monopoles on public land came to $600,000 in tower costs, but the study found that layout would not match the coverage of three 100-foot towers or six 70-foot towers. Its financial models put total capital costs for the network at $900,000 to $1,500,000.

By May 2025 the city was looking at another route. NTC, the city's consultant, explored using the existing Crown Castle sites and installing taller small-cell poles there with new 5G antennas for up to three carriers. City staff began meeting with Crown Castle about it. The appeal was practical. In the memo's words, the "infrastructure already exists" at those sites.

Why It Takes Three Carriers

Crown Castle studied whether the conversion could pay for itself. Its conclusion, as the September 15 memo records it, was that three carriers would need to sign on.

The city and the company then worked out a fallback. If only two carriers join, the city could fund the rest of the project and seek reimbursement when a third carrier eventually signs. Staff wrote that this "is still the model that staff and Arium are working toward."

That arrangement explains the progress so far. By late August 2026, Arium told staff it was under contract with Verizon and was negotiating with T-Mobile, with no timeframe for a contract. AT&T had "begun to show interest." A third carrier "would mean the project could proceed without a financial contribution from the City." At the September 15 study session, the question for council was whether to give the private negotiations more time before considering city money.

By October 6, Cramer reported Arium was "in active negotiations with T-Mobile and AT&T." Two weeks later, the proposed 2027 budget in the October 20 council packet listed $750,000 for "Cell phone tower projects." That line sits beside $730,000 for Quincy Farm projects and $1,591,500 for the mill and overlay street program. The $750,000 is a proposed budget item, not a signed agreement. Still, it puts cell coverage in the same spending tier as some of the city's largest capital work for the coming year.

What the Taller Poles Are Projected to Deliver

The upgrade adds height and 5G at the same sites. The current system has no 5G at all, so the memo notes there is no existing 5G coverage map to compare against.

The projections Arium provided and NTC reviewed measure the share of the city with signal of at least -100 to -102 dBm. The memo calls that range "the industry standard for acceptable coverage that will allow for calls and texts to be made without dropping." Against that standard, the modeled results are:

• Existing 4G bands: coverage gains of 3% to 18%, depending on carrier and frequency band
• New 5G service: 75% to 87% of the city, for Verizon and T-Mobile
• Carriers modeled: Verizon and T-Mobile, with AT&T's participation still under negotiation

Two qualifiers come with those numbers. NTC's August 2026 analysis concluded the predictions "accurately represent the potential future coverage improvements," which makes them a reviewed forecast and not a measurement. And the memo says directly that "actual service improvements would depend on carrier participation." A Verizon customer and a T-Mobile customer living on the same block could see different results, depending on which contracts get signed.

Reading the Poles When They Arrive

If the permits move forward, the change will show up first along the right-of-way. Cramer described the new equipment as steel poles going in next to the existing wooden ones. They will be taller than what stands there now. Raising antenna height was part of Arium's proposal from the start.

The city also publishes a monthly right-of-way permit report in its council packets, counting utility work, driveway work and other jobs by month. From January through August 2026, the monthly totals ranged from 8 permits in June to 26 in both March and April. As the Arium applications move through review, that report and the city manager's updates at regular council meetings are where to follow them.

The timing depends on a T-Mobile contract, an AT&T commitment, and what council decides about city funding if only two carriers sign. Staff told council they would come back "if private-sector participation does not materialize or further direction is needed."

If you've been timing calls by which room holds a signal, or you're wondering what a steel pole next to the wooden one on your street will mean for your service, I'm glad to talk it through, along with the other questions that come up in daily life on a Cherry Hills Village lot. Stephanie Watanabe is here when you're ready. Let's Connect.