How many times over the years have you seen an out-of-towner with a cellphone in one hand and a puzzled look on their face?

Did you watch them turn the device off and power it back up again in hopes that little bars would once again appear in the corner, restoring their connection to the world?

Maybe you decided to relieve the poor sod of their misery, leaning over to advise them that no amount of turning it on and off was going to help. Cellphone service out here is nearly as elusive as Bigfoot and just as mysterious.

Welcome to the country! Don’t expect to text your cousin or call 911 while you’re here.

For years, this is what we here in Sullivan County have accepted. It turns out we might not have to.

The cellphone companies have been doing quite a bit of boasting about their incredible service in our area, but it’s time we, the people, have our say.

Mobile wireless service providers self report their service to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). If that sounds a bit like allowing the fox to call in regular reports of the number of chickens remaining in the coop, just wait.

The FCC, in turn, publishes them on the National Broadband Map, a tool they say is designed to ”reflect where subscribers should be able to receive mobile connectivity when outdoors or in a moving vehicle; the maps do not display indoor coverage.”

Take a quick look at the map, and you’ll see the fox reports the chickens are happy, healthy, and becoming quite popular on TikTok for their barnyard antics.

The chickens would respond, but they keep getting a “text failed” error.

According to the FCC National Broadband Map’s July 2025 update, my home and the surrounding area falls within a Verizon 4G LTE “100% coverage” zone. AT&T and T-Mobile both claim to provide 5G service to my neighborhood. Meanwhile, if the power goes out, I can’t even pull up the NYSEG site on my phone to report the outage.

The story is the same for miles upon miles of Sullivan County. The Broadband Map tells a rosy story of coverage in places where I know I can’t send a text, much less access the internet.

You can check what it says about your property online – provided you can access the internet – at https://link.edgepilot.com/s/d3723ea1/bV8bvDTIpkOl3twBRZOWGg?u=https://broadbandmap.fcc.gov/home.

If the map is telling a whopper of a story, I beg you to do what I’m going to do this week – challenge the claims with the FCC Mobile Speed Test app. The test is easy and free, but it’s only effective if a lot of people mount the challenge.

Although they don’t give a specific number, the FCC says it requires “a pattern of speed tests from the same area that meets the FCC’s threshold for creating a challenge and requiring a provider response … Once a group of speed tests that show speeds below those reported by a provider in that area meets certain thresholds, a challenge will be created, which is sent to the provider for a response.”

To find out how to mount your cellphone service challenge, visit https://link.edgepilot.com/s/d251ad57/y9pahp-dpkmXITf-PyHgSQ?u=https://www.fcc.gov/BroadbandData/speed-test-app.

We may not have service, but we can still get the word out.