Officials from Verizon say the company’s cell phone service in the Routt County area was expanded earlier in March following concerns voiced by customers in January and February.

Heidi Flato, communications manager for Verizon Consumer Group, said this week that Verizon “added additional network hardware, which allowed us to deploy 10MHz of additional spectrum in Steamboat Springs.”

“If you imagine the network as a highway with seven lanes, in this scenario, it’s as if we added an additional lane to allow more traffic to flow in the area,” Flato explained. “We also made some software adjustments, which helps us balance the traffic across all ‘lanes.’ These enhancements benefit customers by delivering faster data throughput, lower latency (reduced lag), fewer dropped calls.”

The spokesperson said the additional capacity added to the network in Steamboat “significantly improved our network performance in the area.”

Flato also said Verizon is working on plans to further enhance capacity in the area later in 2023 as well as bringing 5G Ultra Wideband to Steamboat later this year. She referred customers to the webpage Verizon.com/about/news/what-is-c-band to explain more about the expansion of the company’s C-Band service.

“Thanks to deployment of 5G on the C-Band spectrum, a mid-band spectrum that offers a transformative mix of coverage and performance, consumers across a broader geographic area will have more choices in high-quality 5G service,” the Verizon webpage noted.

In late February, Flato responded to an inquiry from the Steamboat Pilot & Today about problems voiced by local customers concerning low signal and dropped calls on Verizon cell phones this winter.

“The recent increase in network traffic seen in the Steamboat Springs area has been unprecedented,” Flato said on Feb. 23. “This has, at times, led to congestion, which has impacted network performance for some customers.”

Multiple messages and calls placed to the Verizon authorized retail store in Steamboat Springs, now called Victra, to ask for input on local service levels were not returned. Some local Verizon customers report a mixed bag of some improvements and some continued service problems.