REGINA – SaskTel will roll out Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology in Saskatchewan starting next year.
The company confirmed Thursday morning that it has already begun work on LTE planning, infrastructure development and internal system work. The first phase of LTE deployment will begin in the fall of 2012 to Regina, Saskatoon, and surrounding areas, while other areas will begin to access LTE starting in 2013 based on the demand for incremental data services. SaskTel also said that it plans to roll out LTE for voice in 2013.
“LTE technology will significantly improve the customer experience and will provide our customers with data speeds of up to five times faster than our existing 4G network,” said Bill Boyd, Minister responsible for SaskTel, in the announcement. “SaskTel has a solid technology evolution plan that will ensure Saskatchewan residents continue to benefit from the most advanced wireless technology available.”
Minister Boyd added that SaskTel’s initial LTE phones will be compatible with its 4G network and will seamlessly transmit voice over the 4G network and data over LTE until LTE is set up for both voice and data.
The higher bandwidth LTE will provide increased capacity to serve more customers, improve latency with respect to data applications and video, plus allow SaskTel to provide more advanced and higher bandwidth video and multimedia services, the announcement continued.
