REGINA – The new cellular towers serving the communities of Wollaston Lake and Fond Du Lac First Nation are fully operational and residents can now sign up for SaskTel’s wireless service.
The extension of wireless cellular service to these northern communities was made possible through a partnership between SaskTel, Athabasca Basin Development and Huawei Canada. The company said this partnership is based on SaskTel’s Community Participation Model, which encourages communities to raise funds to assist in installing cellular infrastructure where it may not otherwise be economically feasible for the provincial telco to do so.
Wollaston Lake and Fond Du Lac First Nation are the first two of four announced communities to receive this service. The partners have also committed to extending wireless service to the communities of Black Lake and Stony Rapids, with an anticipated completion date of year end 2015.
The total cost of this project was $6 million with Athabasca Basin Development Corporation providing $249,000 and Huawei contributing $385,000 in funding and telecommunications equipment.
