Today SaskTel announced plans to invest $4.3 million to upgrade the wireless LTE networks serving Moose Jaw, North Battleford (and Battleford), Prince Albert, Swift Current, Weyburn, and Yorkton. SaskTel will install additional LTE carriers on all the wireless towers serving these cities which will increase their LTE capacity by 20-100%. These upgrades are designed to address the ever-growing demand for wireless data.

The residents of Swift Current will be the first to enjoy the benefits of these upgrades with their added LTE carriers expected to be fully operational by the week of October 2, 2017. The remaining cities will have their LTE carriers installed and operational before the end of March 2018.

“SaskTel constantly reviews and evaluates opportunities to enhance the services they offer,” said Joe Hargrave, Minister Responsible for SaskTel. “This most recent investment is yet another example of SaskTel’s commitment to provide the people of Saskatchewan with the leading-edge technologies that are necessary in today’s ultra-connected world.”

“These upgrades will ensure that our customers in these communities are able to take full advantage of the benefits that our advanced wireless network has to offer,” said Doug Burnett, SaskTel Acting President and CEO. “With our expansive 4GLTE wireless network, our customers can surf, stream, and download the content they want faster than ever before and from almost anywhere in the province.”

These upgrades come less than a year after SaskTel completed its most ambitious LTE expansion which increased SaskTel’s LTE footprint to cover 99% of the population of the province. These latest upgrades are part of SaskTel’s commitment to invest over $300 million of capital in Saskatchewan in 2017/18 and $1.4 billion through 2016-2021.

About SaskTel

SaskTel is the leading Information and Communications Technology (ICT) provider in Saskatchewan, with over $1.2 billion in annual revenue and approximately 1.4 million customer connections including 617,000 wireless accesses, 374,500 wireline network accesses, 276,000 Internet accesses and 108,500 maxTV™ subscribers. SaskTel and its wholly-owned subsidiaries offer a wide range of ICT products and services including competitive voice, data and Internet services, wireless data services, maxTV services, data centre services, cloud-based services, security monitoring services, advertising services, and international software and consulting services. SaskTel and its wholly-owned subsidiaries have a workforce of approximately 4,000 full-time equivalent employees (FTEs). Visit SaskTel at www.sasktel.com.

For more information, please contact:
Greg Jacobs, SaskTel Manager of External Communications
Phone: 306.777.3433
E-mail: greg.jacobs@sasktel.com