REGINA — As the last phase of the provincial government’s Wireless Saskatchewan initiative, Crown corporation SaskTel today announced it plans to invest more than $70 million to build 74 new cell towers in underserved rural and resort communities by early summer 2021.
This brings the total investment in rural connectivity under the Wireless Saskatchewan initiative over the last three years to more than $107 million, says the company. Originally announced in 2017, the multi-phase plan was designed to increase connectivity in rural parts of the province. Once the final phase of the program is completed, SaskTel’s wireless network will grow to include approximately 1,000 cell towers province wide, reads the press release.
Through the Wireless Saskatchewan initiative, SaskTel has:
- Invested $4.2 million to expand its High Speed Fusion Internet network to 34 new towers in 2018.
- Invested nearly $16 million to build small cell sites in 105 rural communities over several phases.
- Invested approximately $14 million to complete the installation of 15 new 107-metre macro towers which are more than triple the height of small cell sites.
- Invested approximately $1.5 million to improve cellular data capacity in 11 resort communities through enhancing existing cellular sites.
- Today, SaskTel is announcing an additional 74 macro cell towers at an estimated investment of $72.2 million.
“These new towers will help to bolster and add capacity to our network so that we can continue to meet the ever-growing demand for wireless data,” said SaskTel president and CEO Doug Burnett in the release.
For a list of the 74 new macro cell tower locations, please see SaskTel’s press release here.
