After residents and business owners were stuck for years with a dead zone in South Utica and New Hartford, Verizon is finally bringing cell service to Oneida Street, the Ridgewood neighborhood, and the village of New Hartford.

Sen. Chuck Schumer was one of the many elected officials who demanded Verizon to fix the dead zone and personally visited Oneida County, advocating for South Utica and New Hartford residents and small business owners, who were at their wit’s end after dealing with Verizon’s cellular dead zone, and called on the company to fix the issue immediately.

Verizon has now started the process of building a cell tower in the area, Schumer announced Thursday.

Shortly after Schumer’s calls to action, Verizon representatives engaged with the city of Utica, the village of New Hartford, and Schumer’s staff to work on solving the issue.

The village of New Hartford’s board approved Verizon’s application to construct a new tower which will mitigate coverage issues for South Uticans, residents of New Hartford, and drivers traveling along Oneida Street last July.

“I am grateful that Verizon cell service has been restored to the Ridgewood neighborhood and my business, said Ridgewood Market Owner Andy Weimer, in Schumer’s statement. “All of the businesses in the Ridgewood neighborhood will benefit from the restored service, as well as the neighborhood having access to emergency services if the need should arise. We all appreciate Senator Schumer’s help making this happen.“

Construction speedup needed

Shortly after, they began construction on the tower, and as construction continued, a fire in the area highlighted the immediate need for this longstanding problem to be fixed ASAP.

Schumer doubled down on his calls, saying Verizon needed to speed up construction, which was completed earlier this week with the new cell tower coming online on Aug. 28, finally bringing cellular service to the dead zone and other areas along Oneida Street.

“I stood with South Uticans and New Hartford residents at their wit’s end last year, fed up with a cell phone dead zone that couldn’t seem to be brought back to life. I turned up the volume on Verizon in hopes that they would get the message and today I am proud to say: Verizon heard me and Utica loud and clear. The New Hartford cell tower is officially built, fully up and running, and connecting residents to the long-desired cell service Oneida Street has desperately needed,” said Schumer in the statement.

“Nobody should ever be put in harm’s way because they can’t call 911 because of a cell phone dead zone. I thank Verizon for heeding my calls and expediting construction to deliver for the community as they promised me they would. I will keep fighting to make sure we address these cell dead zones across Upstate NY so residents have access to reliable, high-quality mobile service.”

What are dead zones?

According to Schumer, mobile dead zones are areas where there is no cellular signal, either because the signal is being blocked, the tower is too small for the area, or because the cell phone tower is too far.

Causes for these dead zones may vary. For example, cell phone signals are facilitated by a radio frequency signal via a tower’s transmit. If the RF signal is too far or is blocked by obstacles, then a cell phone dead zone is created.

The most common culprits are cell phone tower distance and topography like hills, mountains, ridges, and foliage because they can absorb or reflect the signal waves, but there are other reasons too, like in New York City, where skyscrapers can create dead zones.

“After many years and countless local complaints gone unanswered, as a resident in the dead zone, I would like to thank Senator Schumer for taking up our cause, holding Verizon’s feet to the fire, and making sure they fixed the South Utica dead zone. With the Verizon dead zone finally patched, local businesses like Ridgewood Market can better access wireless connection to help them grow, and local homeowners can sleep more soundly knowing their call to emergency services will go through if needed while in their homes or simply walking with our families in the neighborhood,” said Utica Mayor Mike Galime in the statement.

“On behalf of all the Utica residents, businesses, and members of our community plagued by Verizon’s South Utica dead zone, I reiterate our profound appreciation to Senator Schumer for making this game-changing new tower a reality and delivering for the City of Utica time and time again. This is true advocacy at work.”

This article originally appeared on Observer-Dispatch: Verizon brings cell service to dead zone in Utica, New Hartford