The National Radio Quiet Zone is a mountainous, remote area in West Virginia and Virginia where cell phones and many other communication devices aren’t allowed. Emergency managers say this poses safety issues, and the federal government just completed a two-year study, which finds there may be potential fixes.
The Green Bank Observatory in Pocahontas County and a National Security Agency facility in Pendleton County both use radio telescopes. The quiet zone exists to prevent interference from their work, some of which is classified.
Rick Gillespie, emergency services coordinator for Pendleton County, said the quiet zone puts people at risk. What if they have a heart attack or a house fire? “And because of the lack of cellular telephone they can’t report it,” Gillespie said.
For this reason, many people in Pocahontas and Pendleton Counties have landline phones, but not all families do. Gillespie said emergency responders often can’t communicate with each other.
“Communications is number one when it comes to trying to keep people safe, getting adequate resources to the scene,” Gillespie said. “And then those resources being able to communicate back to the 911 centers on what their needs are to deal with the emergencies.”
Gillespie and other emergency managers have been urging political representatives to ask the federal agencies to lift some of the restrictions. In 2024, nine West Virginia counties and Augusta County in Virginia signed resolutions asking for help to allow more people inside the quiet zone to better communicate with emergency dispatchers.
Gillespie said West Virginia Republican Senator Shelley Moore Capito helped secure funding for a study from the National Science Foundation and the National Security Agency. They hired consultants Roberson & Associates, LLC and CTA
Consultants LLC to spend two years studying the issue.
The study, released in August, recommends possibly changing the mapping system, which could lift restrictions in part of the quiet zone.
Gillespie says NSF and NSA have also expressed a potential willingness to help pay for upgrades to the counties’ communications systems.
“They’ve agreed to work with us to find the absolute best spots for any new radio towers, Gillespie explained. “That they would provide us with the best coverage fill in for our dead zones, while simultaneously not causing an interference to them.”
Gillespie said it would be difficult for these rural counties to pay for upgrades without outside funding from the federal government.
