SaskTel looks to expand cell coverage in rural areas, provincial parks

SaskTel is looking to expand its provincial LTEnetwork.

The Crown corporation announced Monday it plans to build 15 macro towers in areas that have little or no cellservice.

The expansionmeans people may seeimprovements in being able totextand callon cellular devices, as well as improvements in streaming quality and speed.

The project, worth over $13.5 million, includes towers in several rural communities such asLivelong locatedan hour northwest of North Battleford andLorlie, which is just east of Fort Qu'Appelle.

Michelle Englot, director of external communications for SaskTel, said the tower additions werenecessary to keep up with customer demand.

"These expansions are looking at reaching more rural areas and provincial parks where the data capacity requirements are ever-increasing," said Englot.

Englot said SaskTel is also looking at other resort communities to expand service to in the future, but wasn't able to pinpoint yet where those would be located.

Two provincial parks to get new towers

Douglas and Danielsonprovincial parksare expected to be recipients of the new infrastructure.

Englot said SaskTelhas installed towersin other provincial parks and is continuing to do thatbecauseit's seen high demand for LTE service in those areas.

While some park-goers flock to provincial parks to get away from their cell phones and disconnect the world, Englot isn't concerned the easier accesswill disrupt traditional camping.

"If [customers]choose not to connect, it's certainly their choice," she said.

A spokesperson forthe Ministry of Parks, Culture and Sport said Tuesday that there are locations at some provincial parks where there is still limited-to-noservice, including backcountry hiking trails, where people can completely disconnect.

But the ministry has heard from campers that they're happy to have the option to connect if they want to.

Thenew towers are expected to be in service in all planned locationsby March.

A full list of thelocations is available on the Government of Saskatchewan's website.