Yellowstone eyes last link in cellphone system

A proposed Verizon Wireless cellphone tower at Fishing Bridge will be the last piece of Yellowstone National Park’s wireless service infrastructure.

The 100-foot-tall steel tower was included in a 2008 Wireless Communication Services Plan, an environmental assessment that called for “limited increases” in service. It’s the last tower that will go in at Yellowstone in the foreseeable future, said Bret DeYoung, Yellowstone’s branch chief of telecommunications.

The site of the proposed Fishing Bridge-area tower was selected to limit coverage in the backcountry, DeYoung said.