Things may be looking up soon for people in Provincetown with Sprint PCS wireless phone service. On Nov. 7 representatives of the New Jersey-based Sprint Spectrum company will meet with the town Planning Board to begin the process of providing consistent Sprint wireless phone service to the town, with the installation of a repeater facility on the town's Mt. Gilboa water tank, near the Truro town line.

The facility, which consists of painted panel antennas mounted on the sides of the water tower and radio equipment housed in a shed at its base, will extend communication signals from Sprint's existing 'full-function' site at the Truro police station. The plan, according to Sprint spokesperson, Adrian Paul, is 'a good step' towards satisfying the town's, the company's and its customers' needs.

'Basically, we see the water tank as a good fit,' Paul said on Monday. 'It will drastically improve the coverage area. We consider a water tower fairly ideal, with minimal visual impacts, and we hear it everyday that people want better coverage [in Provincetown].'

A repeater facility, with its limited construction requirements, is quicker to implement, Paul said, and will provide service to customers in Provincetown more quickly than building a 'full-function' site. In documentation submitted to the town, Sprint also states that to date it has been unable to provide 'adequate' wireless personal communication service to Provincetown.

Currently, only Verizon, headquartered in New York City, provides consistent wireless phone service to Provincetown, and according to David Guertin, Director of Provincetown's Dept. of Public Works, there are currently no wireless telecommunication sites or repeater facilities in Provincetown.

The Planning Board meeting, technically Sprint's 'pre-application conference' for the permit required by the town's wireless telecommunications zoning bylaw, is open to the public and comes after the Board of Selectmen's vote on July 23 to enter into a 20-year lease agreement with Sprint for installation and operation of the repeater facility.

The lease agreement with Sprint, according to Town Manager Keith Bergman, will net approximately $1 million in revenue for the town over the next 20 years, an amount that will be deposited, in accordance with a 1996 Special Town Meeting vote, into the town's Water Enterprise Fund, for water and water distribution expenses.

In Sprint's 'site plan review' application (also required by the town's wireless telecommunications zoning bylaw) that was received at Town Hall on Oct. 10, the company directly addresses the requirements of the town's wireless communications zoning by-law. In other towns on Cape Cod where Sprint repeater facilities are currently installed, Paul said, there has been 'no trouble whatsoever.'

'We have had tank antennas on Cape Cod for years,' Paul said. 'Other examples of existing tank applications are Yarmouth where we have two, one in Cotuit and one in Dennis. The tank siting is generally a solution that we consider good for all parties. Water tanks are not beautiful to behold, but a fact of life. It's a win-win situation.' Sprint also has a site in Wellfleet, as well as the one at the Truro police station, and is pursuing a second site in each of the two towns.

Bob Seay, executive director of Provincetown-based WOMR-FM, said on Tuesday that he has no objections to a plan for Sprint's repeater facility as long as it's mounted on the side of the tank.

'We understand that technically it should not interfere with the radio signal, but we were kind of concerned about the overwhelming number of applicants,' Seay said of the town's previous forays into exploring wireless telecommunications facilities. 'If you get different systems, then there might be a possibility of interference and displacement of our antenna ... as long as theirs is on the side, then I don't have any problem.' The radio station's antenna is on top of the Mt. Gilboa water tank.