REGINA – SaskTel is adding additional capacity to its wireless network in 9 rural communities in Saskatchewan, but the 10th community will have to wait a little longer.
The company will be adding a network carrier to enhance the current tower capacity by 20% to 100% in Candle Lake, Carlyle, Cochin, Greenwater Lake, Kerrobert, Kindersley, Lloydminster, Manitou Beach, Nipawin, and Turtle Lake.
“SaskTel is pleased to provide enhanced capacity at these communities to address ongoing demand for bandwidth,” said president and CEO Ron Styles, in the news release. “Besides these 10 recent enhancements, SaskTel also completed over 464 4G capacity improvements in 2014 and 2015.”
Candle Lake, Cochin, and Greenwater Lake have a completion date of end of June, in time for the July 1st long weekend. Turtle Lake, Lloydminster and Manitou Beach have a tentative completion date of the end of July, and Carlyle, Nipawin, Kerrobert, and Kindersley have a tentative completion date of the end of September 2015.
But SaskTel’s said that its expansion plans for Turtle Lake have been temporarily delayed due to this week's discovery of a mating pair of osprey (pictured) nesting on the Turtle Lake wireless tower. (Ed note: an earlier version of this story incorrectly identified the birds as bald eagles).
“We have decided that it is in the best interest for the safety of our employees and the safety of the osprey to delay the tower upgrade until Turtle Lake’s most recent tourists have left the nest,” added Styles.
