The Cumberland County Board of Commissioners is set to vote tonight on a resolution urging T-Mobile Wireless to immediately restore cellular coverage to the Grassy Cove community, framing the months-long outage as a dire public safety hazard.

The measure sits as the sole item on the agenda for tonight’s meeting, scheduled for 6 p.m. at the Historic Cumberland County Courthouse.

Grassy Cove’s unique topography—a deep basin enclosed by elevated terrain—severely limits wireless signals from outside towers. For years, residents relied on a local tower that operated on an 800 MHz frequency bandwidth through US Cellular.

However, following T-Mobile’s recent acquisition of US Cellular assets, key infrastructure—including the Black Mountain tower and its crucial 800 MHz spectrum—was taken offline or excluded from the buyout. As a result, standard cellular coverage for local residents, motorists, and businesses in the area has virtually disappeared since April.

County officials stress that the complete loss of reliable wireless service poses an unacceptable threat to the community. With many households having long abandoned traditional landlines, the outage severely hinders residents’ ability to reach 911 during medical emergencies, severe weather, fires, or motor vehicle crashes along routes like Highway 68.

Furthermore, law enforcement, fire departments, and emergency medical services face severe operational hurdles when dispatched to the area. While T-Mobile has previously indicated service might not be fully restored until November, local leadership maintains that waiting several more months leaves the public in jeopardy.

If passed tonight, Resolution No. 07-2026-1 will formally request that T-Mobile:

• Restore Coverage: Immediately evaluate the outage and restore reliable cellular service as soon as practicable.

• Meet with Officials: Sit down with the County Mayor, 911 Communications District leaders, and emergency personnel to lay out immediate remedies.

• Rally State & Federal Support: Direct certified copies of the action to state and federal agencies—including the FCC, TEMA, and Tennessee’s congressional delegation (Sens. Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty, Rep. John Rose, Rep. Cameron Sexton, and Sen. Paul Bailey)—to leverage government assistance.

The resolution also urges Grassy Cove residents to document all instances of dropped coverage or failed emergency communications so local officials can present a clear record of the outage’s impact to T-Mobile and government regulators.