As most people have experienced, cell phone coverage around Lake Tahoe can be trying at times, especially during heavy tourist days when thousands of extra users are in the area. Combine that with over half of homes ditching their land-lines and relying only on cell phones, demand has greatly increased.

Lake Tahoe cell phone coverage may soon be improved as Verizon is working with Liberty Utilities and NV Energy and local governments to place small, seven-foot, grounded cell towers on top of current power poles on all sides of the lake.

They will look like a new, skinny metal pole on top of the existing wood poles.

Liberty Utilities has met with Verizon about the cell phone carrier's desire to put 52 small cell towers in both the North Lake Tahoe and South Lake Tahoe service areas. Verizon is also meeting with the NV Energy for a similar project on both ends of the lake in Nevada as well.

Seven of those sites would be on the lake side of El Dorado County and 24 in the South Lake Tahoe city limits.

Each pole covers a circumference of 1500 feet, so their placement has been strategically laid out, and moving them to a different pole would not give Verizon the desired results. Should one of the small cell towers no longer be needed, Verizon told the South Lake Tahoe Planning Commission they'd restore the area to original condition within 90 days.

For use of their current electrical poles, Liberty Utilities will receive a fee from Verizon as laid out in state and federal guidelines. As a regulated utility, Liberty Utilities must comply with California Public Utilities Commission ruling on any joint pole agreement (i.e., sharing).

The South Lake Tahoe Planning Commission has had the placement of these small cell towers on their recent agendas, with seven-nine of the joint poles being voted on at their recent monthly meetings.

AT&T, which is also a popular carrier in Lake Tahoe, has been exploring possible sites for new towers with the City of South Lake Tahoe. Verizon has been first to the starting gate.

"They have not submitted applications at this point," said the City's Director of Development Services Kevin Fabino.

No more than one of the small cell tower can be placed on an electrical pole, so AT&T couldn't go on the same poles as Verizon. 911 calls will go through the nearest tower, no matter the carrier.

The City has contacted residents living within 300 feet of any proposed small tower placement on top of the utility poles, with some residents attending the Planning Commission meetings to find out, and comment on, the process.

There will be a utility box installed at the bottom of each of the joint poles, painted green to minimize the visual impacts. For the same reason, the seven-foot tower on top will be painted brown.

Verizon wants to have a large cell phone tower in South Lake Tahoe, but so far hasn't been able to secure a location. They were working with Lake Tahoe Unified School District to use property at the high school for the tower, but when the desired location was between the new science wing and football field surrounded by barbed wire, the District so far has been saying no.

When asked for comment on any new locations, Verizon didn't answer phone and email requests.

At the June "Conversation with the Mayor" in South Lake Tahoe, Heidi Hill Drum, CEO of the Tahoe Prosperity Center, announced that four large cell phone towers are going in on USFS land in Lake Tahoe. She said with the school district placement falling through another Tahoe Mountain tower is planned. Of the four, some are of the single pole variety, others the "mono-pine" version that look like trees.

With large towers and small cell towers, the region gets expanded capacity for cell phones.