REGINA – SaskTel says it has deployed a variety of technologies, including stealth poles, in order to complete its 2012 infrastructure improvement plans that address its growing customer demand for 4G wireless service.
“SaskTel has a long record in pursuing innovative and cutting edge solutions when it comes to expanding our 4G network across the province,” said Don McMorris, Minister Responsible for SaskTel. “We are committed to building and powering the largest, fastest and most complete wireless network in the Province.”
SaskTel is using a variety of infrastructure options to enhance wireless service based on usage patterns and demands in the province. In addition to traditional towers being constructed across the province, SaskTel is also increasing capacity and coverage by deploying other options when traditional towers are not feasible due to space or other limitations. These include installing antennas to increase coverage strength inside of buildings, streetlight antennas, wooden and stealth poles, as well as installing new cellular sites on various rooftop locations. Stealth poles, such as the one installed at Saskatoon Preston Crossing, utilize a new small cell site that is fully enclosed within the structure and improves coverage and capacity, while also allowing them to better blend into their surroundings.
A range of projects have been completed across the province to date in 2012 including the installation of 33 new towers, 10 antenna systems in major buildings in Regina and Saskatoon, and two new rooftop antennas. In addition, new carriers which add capacity to the network have been added at 95 sites across the province and three antenna sites have had the number of sectors operating doubled to add capacity. SaskTel has an additional 60 infrastructure improvement projects planned for completion by year-end 2012 which will increase capacity to match the continued growth in customer demands on the network.
Other enhancements to the network include the addition of paging software that increased the number of paging zones in the Province from five zones to a total of 17 which improves the overall speed and responsiveness of the network for our customers. We have also doubled the number of radio network controllers in the system to facilitate the increased number of towers and carriers that make up the system.
SaskTel originally allocated $70 million dollars for wireless network enhancements for this year, however due to the accelerating growth in demand for services, we have increased our commitment by $30 million, bringing the total spend in 2012 to approximately $100 million. With the engineering enhancements that SaskTel has completed over the past several months, the company says it remains well within industry standards for dropped calls on a wireless network at approximately 1% and call completions at over 99%.
