How Cellular Service Came to Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone officials approved the infrastructure necessary for cellular communications in 1995. Top Yellowstone officials wanted to use the new technology and were offered personal incentives (free phones and minutes) to accept it. 

Unfortunately, Park officials ignored the required process and approved the new infrastructure without any public input (a recurring theme for telecommunications at Yellowstone) and without the necessary compliance with environmental and historic preservation laws.  Here’s a brief summary of what Park officials did wrong in approving cellular infrastructure for the Park starting in 1995.

Park officials:

• Unlawfully received 70 free phones and 5,000 free minutes of use per month as part of the agreement granting permission to install facilities and provide cell phone service in Yellowstone.

• Mistakenly issued a Special Use Permit to install these facilities instead of the required Right-of-Way. 

• Within a month, acknowledged their mistake in issuing a Special Use Permit instead of a Right-of-Way, promised to fix it, but then failed to do so during a five-year period . 

• Failed to conduct any analysis of the impacts of cellular use and the placement of cellular antennas under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA).  Skirting these two laws enabled Park officials to avoid notifying the public and soliciting public comment.

• Unlawfully paid their telecom staff with the money from cell tower leases, contrary to U.S. law and policy. 

If the public had been notified about Cellular One’s 1995 proposal and been able to comment on it, would there be five cell towers in Yellowstone today?