Rural areas of Colorado's Boulder County concerned about unreliable landline service

Gold Hill is a small mountain community in Boulder County where everyone is closely knit. But when it's time to make a phone call, cell service can be spotty. This means in emergencies, residents say they rely on landlines. 

Now the fire chief in Gold Hill and other rural areas of Boulder County is raising the alarm about what they say is unreliable landline service when the power goes out, leaving them with no signal and no solution.

Congressman Joe Neguse, a Democrat representing Colorado's 2nd Congressional District, is also getting involved. Alongside a push for greater broadband coverage, Neguse shared a statement in part, "The connectivity issues in Gold Hill pose serious, life-threatening concerns for the people of the community, and are a reality for far too many of our rural and mountain towns..."

One Gold Hill resident Maggie Simms says she's happy to be a little "off the grid" out in the mountains, but she still wants the option to call someone if she needs.

"When you're here in the middle of a fire, the wind is blowing, and you don't know if you're able to get out. We need emergency personnel," Simms said.

Simms isn't just speaking hypothetically – she's called 911 and had to evacuate more than once.

"These are all trees that burned. As you can see, the flames are leaping up, maybe 50-60 feet, and that's from our backyard," Simms said as she held a photo of a fire.

The Gold Hill Fire Department answered the call, but now, Rich Caudill is worried they might not get a call next time the power goes out and phone lines go down with it. "When you have an entire community all cut off from emergency communications at once, it's a fire chief's worst nightmare."

With an inconsistent cell signal in the mountains, the fire department relies on phone company Lumen for landline coverage. But when the power goes out, Caudill says so do the phone lines.

"The system was designed with an emergency backup capability when it was initially installed, and so I feel like it's the corporation's responsibility to maintain that level of service that they promised to the citizens," Caudill said.

Caudill says Lumen's backup battery stopped working a while ago, and even though he's reached out to Lumen and even offered to pay for a new one, they haven't called him back.

In a statement to CBS Colorado, Lumen said, in part:

"...We take this matter seriously and have worked with the local agency for over a year to explore safe and practical options. While we replaced batteries at their Boulder [dispatch] and evaluated other technical solutions, their proposal to install generators on our network raised significant security and labor concerns, and we ultimately declined that approach… and continue to collaborate on mapping efforts to reflect locations that could be impacted..."

Those impacted locations include fire departments across Boulder County, including the Sunshine Fire Department and the Left Hand Fire Protection District. Each one told CBS Colorado they also need a new backup battery for their residents to be able to call 911 when the power goes out.

"I would ask that Lumen consider the people who are behind the numbers. I know that, you know, everybody is a customer or has a customer number, but understand. Those people are medically fragile. They are in areas that are high risk for wildfires," Caudill said.

And Simms is one of those people saying she hopes to still hear a dial tone next time the power goes out.

"I truly hope that your work can convince Lumen that we are worthy of a battery," Simms said.