According to the Federal Communications Commission half of the 300,000 911 calls made each day are calls from cell phones.

That is just one of the reasons U.S. Cellular is expanding its network.

"Last year U.S. Cellular did a survey of West Virginians in the state and 9 out of 10 of them feel that the biggest reason that they have a cell phone is for safety and security," says Dee Taylor, the mid-atlantic director of sales.

Taylor said that is one of the reasons why U.S. Cellular is expanding its network, adding five more Morgantown towers to its network of 130 in West Virginia.

"It's a great opportunity for our customers to feel safe where they live and where they work," she explains.

That is where Performance Engineer Ken Wotring comes in.

"I try to watch for problems," he says, "I find areas where the phones don't work too well and we try to design solutions for those areas."

Armed with an arsenal of technology in the driver's seat of his U.S. Cellular car and four cell phones constantly dialing in the back seat, he travels hundreds of miles checking signal strength and clarity.

"We use that data to make adjustments to the network to be sure we have capacity where we need it, coverage where we need it, make sure the calls are passing as they should from one tower to the next," Wotring explains.

But keeping the calls connected takes hard work.

"We try to get a spot where the signal will get around as many mountains as possible and provide as much coverage as possible where people are," he says, "so a lot of times the towers are in pretty inaccessible areas."

No matter which road he takes Wotring is keeping his community in mind.

"Our customers are my friends and family, folks we go to church with, folks I see at the store you know it's a personal thing to keep this network in shape."

Wotring says they plan to have all five of the new towers up by early fall.

But that isn't the only expansion news; U.S. Cellular is launching its 3-G network on August 3, something they say will provide data speeds 10 times faster.