REGINA — SaskTel announced today it is investing approximately $10 million to install Samsung radio access network (RAN) equipment and significantly increase the 4G LTE data capacity of its wireless network serving 30 rural communities.
“SaskTel has already begun work to upgrade these towers and anticipates the majority of upgrades will be complete by the end of March 2023,” reads a press release.
The upgrades will increase the 4G LTE data capacity in each of the communities by more than 100%, according to the release. “The added capacity will ensure that SaskTel wireless customers can continue to fully utilize their smartphones without being slowed by network congestion,” the release says.
The locations benefiting from the tower upgrades include Baildon, Big River First Nation, Blaine Lake, Bruno, Cando, Canwood, Choiceland, Crooked River, Cutknife, Glaslyn, Gravelbourg, Greenstreet, Hafford, Hodgeville, Ituna, Kipabiskau Regional Park, Lake Alma, Leader, Lestock, Montmatre, Nekaneet Cree Nation, Norquay, Oxbow, Quill Lake, Rabbit Lake, Shellbrook, Turtleford, Warmley, Willow Bunch and Witchekan Lake.
“In addition to enhancing the wireless experience that our customers receive today, these upgrades will lay the foundation for the deployment of 5G in the future as we continue our work to bring the next generation in wireless technology to our customers across the province,” said Doug Burnett, SaskTel’s president and CEO, in the release.
When contacted by Cartt.ca, a SaskTel spokesperson confirmed the Crown corporation is replacing existing Huawei equipment on these cell towers with gear from Samsung.
The Government of Canada announced in May it is banning the use of Huawei and ZTE products and services in Canada’s telecommunications systems. As part of that ban, telecom service providers must stop buying 4G or 5G equipment from the two Chinese vendors by Sept. 1, 2022, and must remove existing Huawei and ZTE 4G equipment by Dec. 31, 2027 and 5G equipment by June 28, 2024.
SaskTel previously announced it will use Samsung gear for its 5G network.
Photo borrowed from SaskTel’s website.
