LOUDONVILLE - Can you hear me now?

If you’re in parts of Bethlehem, Cohoes and Colonie – probably not.

Albany County Legislator Joseph O’Brien, a Colonie resident, said he lives about a quarter-mile from a cellphone tower on Old Niskayuna Road, but oftentimes he has no cell service. Other times calls are dropped.

In neighboring Latham, Legislator Paul Burgdorf experiences the same issues.

Remember when the blue screen of death indicated your computer was on the fritz?

“Today there is a new screen of death, and it’s 911 call failure,” Burgdorf said while holding up a screenshot of a cellphone that failed to dial 911. “I will tell you that over the years in my home the cell system has degraded to the point where if you call 911, or your neighbor, there is a 50 percent chance your call will be dropped.”

As the suburbs of Albany County grow and more people drop landlines for cellphones, county officials say the infrastructure hasn’t kept pace. Legislators want county Sheriff Craig Apple to study the scope of the problem and work with local providers to come up with solutions.

“It’s a significant issue not only for communication, but for emergency communication,” legislative Chairman Andrew Joyce said. “You have to be able to dial 911 and get someone on the other end.”

Legislators say the sheriff should host town hall meetings across Albany County to find out if there are other dead zones and connect with local cellphone carriers to find solutions. The Legislature will vote Tuesday evening to have Apple analyze the issue.

County 911 dispatch – a system that is shared with municipalities across the county, like the city of Albany – receives about 1,000 calls per week and roughly 80 percent of them are coming from cellphones.

“If these cellphones are dropping, then we’re not getting there to save lives,” said fire Chief Patrick O’Connor, who heads the Albany Shaker Loudonville Fire Department and experiences his own connectivity issues. “It would definitely be worth our while, and save lives, to resolve these issues no matter where they are in the county.”

Over the last two years, Albany County has enhanced its inter-operability through a new radio system that connects police, fire, emergency medical services and buses, and erected additional cellphone towers in the Hilltowns where the lack of service presented a public safety issue.

“We got a great system and we have great infrastructure, but the other part of the puzzle – the cell connection – is where our problem lies,” Apple said. “We don’t want to be in a situation like up North where people can’t dial 911 and get connection.”

He agreed that for a heavily populated area, Colonie is one of the worst for cell service.

In 2000, the town had a population of 79,258, according to the U.S. Census. Now, 2016 population estimates say the count is 82,893. Overall, the county has seen growth over the years from 294,565 in 2010 to an estimated 307,891 in 2016, census figures show.

Apple said the providers must be aware of the issue because they’ve been quick to offer boosters to customers to address the connection issues.

“I actually have a booster in my office down in the city of Albany because of constant issues that we’re having where we can’t connect, so they know there is a problem, we just have to nudge them along to find out what is the issue and how can we make it better,” he said.