Residents report failed calls and poor data, sometimes despite full bars. For more than a month, residents across Longmont and Niwot have been dealing with dead zones, with complaints dating to early September, and now Colorado’s congressional delegation is demanding that federal regulators and wireless carriers stop pointing fingers and fix it.
U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse, along with Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper, sent a letter on October 13 urging the Federal Communications Commission and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration to meet with carriers and restore service in Boulder County, according to 9News. The outlet’s Steve on Your Side team had already been investigating phone problems reported by more than 100 people in the two towns before the letter went out.
The culprit, per that investigation, is not a broken tower or a storm-damaged line. AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile altered their signals to comply with federal law near a research site north of Boulder, and those adjustments are what triggered the coverage problems now frustrating residents. The timeline lines up with a broader federal compliance push: federal officials discovered carriers exceeding quiet zone signal limits in 2024, and compliance efforts that began in January 2025 culminated in actual power reductions across Boulder County in September 2026, according to Inside Towers.
A Legal Quiet Zone Near Boulder
The Table Mountain Radio Quiet Zone protects research at the site, including work by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Geological Survey, per 9News. Federal guidance recommends coordinating with the Commerce Department for transmitters within 80 kilometers (50 miles) of the site; federal regulations limit signals received at the site, with tiered consultation distances, according to the Federal Register…