Northwestel boosts wireless nets in four communities

IQALUIT – Northwestel cellular customers in Rankin Inlet, Baker Lake, Arviat and Pangnirtung can now enjoy a dramatic increase in data speeds on their smart phones, and better call quality as a result of a major network upgrade, the company said on Monday. Northwestel’s technicians upgraded the cellular sites in these communities from CDMA 1xRTT to EV-DO, which will increase data speeds and capacity by up to ten times, says a press release. EVDO stands for Evolution-Data Optimized - a wireless standard that separates voice and data onto separate channels. 4G LTE will not come to the North quite yet....