REGINA – The new cellular towers serving the communities of Stony Rapids and Black Lake 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 also received wireless service under this initiative last September. 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.
“SaskTel remains committed to connecting all the residents of this vast Province to technology and the opportunities it brings,” said Minister Responsible for SaskTel Jim Reiter, in the news release. “In addition to this important initiative, with support from the Connecting Canadians Program, SaskTel is also working on extending and increasing broadband internet speeds to an additional 26 Northern communities.”
