If you're planning to travel to Yellowstone this summer, enjoy the relative peace and quiet (if such a thing exists in Yellowstone in the summer) while you can. By next year, the campers in the tent next to you might be gabbing on their cell phones. Park officials, according to the AP, are "quietly preparing a plan that could expand wireless towers and antennas as well as TV and radio service in the park." Because the real reason people visit the national parks is to watch "Lost" in their tents.

Park officials quietly met with cell phone company representatives in what one environmental group calls an illegal meeting - the public was not informed - last year. There is already spotty cell phone service in some parts of the park, thanks in part to a tower that was installed a few years back - amid much public outcry - not far from Old Faithful.

The wireless plans were disclosed by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), which obtained records under the Freedom of Information Act. According to the group's press release, Verizon, Qwest, and Sprint were among the wireless companies that attended the Yellowstone meeting and would like to increase their network coverage in the park. According to PEER, the National Park Service has no central policy on "electronic penetration" in national parks, and no inventory of existing cellular towers.

Photo credit: National Park Service