State Rep. Meghan Lukens was talking with a colleague about their upcoming meeting regarding cell phone connectivity issues in Colorado when something ironic happened: The call dropped. 

The moment was emblematic of a problem all too familiar to frequent travelers of Colorado’s Western Slope — an issue Lukens and a bipartisan group of state lawmakers are hoping to solve.

“I start every single phone call with ‘Just letting you know, I’m driving, so I’m most likely going to lose service,'” Lukens said at the inaugural Cell Phone Connectivity Interim Study Committee meeting Tuesday, July 9. “And I almost inevitably do.” 

The study committee, which is made up of six legislators and six nonvoting members, was formed this year by a legislative request from two members of the committee: Rep. Matt Soper, R-Delta, and Rep. Jennifer Bacon, D-Denver.  

Lukens is the chair of the committee and Sen. Dylan Roberts, D-Frisco, Sen. Nick Hinrichsen, D-Pueblo, and Sen. Rod Pelton, R-Cheyenne Wells, are also members. The six nonvoting members appointed by the governor are representatives of the Department of Public Safety, the Department of Transportation and the cell phone industry. 

“When they say, ‘We want good cell phone coverage in a mountainous state where they said it was impossible, and they did it,’ I want folks to point to Colorado,” Soper said in the meeting.  

He added that he wants to find legislative solutions that incentivize better cell coverage rather than create punishments. 

Soper and Bacon requested the committee after Bacon visited the Western Slope last year for the Palisade Peach Festival and was alarmed at the poor cell service in the area. Bacon said her district in Denver also struggles with cell service. 

“It is not just a rural issue. It’s an urban issue, and, therefore, it’s an all-of-Colorado issue,” she said. 

Lukens and Roberts both said they hear about the issue constantly from residents of their districts, which span huge swaths of the Western Slope. 

In the first meeting, the committee heard general presentations on the topic from the telecom industry, state government representatives and the National Conference of State Legislatures.

The committee will have five more meetings this year, two of which will be “field trips.” The regular meeting dates are Aug. 12, Aug. 20 and Oct. 1. 

While the committee exists, this year and next year, the members will be able to meet six times per year and request up to three bill drafts to address the issue each year. 

The next legislative session will begin in January.