Rogers Communications said Friday it has turned on three new cellular towers along B.C.’s Highway 16, known as the Highway of Tears, as part of its ongoing efforts to improve public safety and wireless coverage along the northern route where many Indigenous women and girls have gone missing or have been found murdered over the years.
Providing 911 access for all travellers and 5G wireless coverage for Rogers customers, the new towers are part of a project Rogers announced in April 2021 whereby the telecom is building 12 new towers to provide 252 kilometres of new cell coverage along Highway 16 between Prince Rupert and Prince George, closing gaps to ensure continuous coverage along the entire 720-kilometre highway corridor.
“Together with a previously completed tower in Seaton, the new tower at Seeley Lake Park is providing 13 kilometres of new wireless coverage and two new towers are providing 37 kilometres of new coverage between Seven Sisters Mountain and Pacific,” a press release explains.
“We are proud to provide 50 kilometres of 5G cellular connectivity on sections of Highway 16, as part of our continued work to bring seamless wireless service between Prince Rupert and Prince George,” Ron McKenzie, Rogers’s chief technology and information officer, said in the release. “Working with Indigenous communities and government partners, Rogers is honoured to be part of this generational project to increase safety on the Highway of Tears for travellers and residents, and honour survivors, victims and their families.”
The cell network expansion project is partly funded by the B.C. government’s Connecting British Columbia program and the federal government’s Universal Broadband Fund.
“Wireless connectivity along highways keeps people safer. Initiatives like this project on Highway 16 will give women, especially Indigenous women, who find themselves in unsafe situations a real lifeline,” said Gudie Hutchings, federal minister of rural economic development. “Our government is committed to making sure all Canadians are safe and connected. This investment is part of the $50 million set aside through the Universal Broadband Fund for mobile internet projects, and is just one of the ways our government is improving the lives of people living in rural, Indigenous and remote communities.”
Photo borrowed from Rogers’s website.
