Cell phone service in southeast Saskatchewan continues to improve, as Sasktel has been upgrading towers in the Weyburn area, while also adding new towers to some communities.

In the past few weeks, crews have been working to increase the capacity in Weyburn itself, according to Greg Jacobs with SaskTel.

“We just completed two projects, two bigger projects, in Weyburn, to replace existing cell sites, and so we replaced these two existing sites with larger sites,” Jacobs explained. The larger sites are planned to serve the residents of Weyburn now, and also have the capacity to serve future needs for cellular customers in the future as well.

In addition to the work in Weyburn, there have also been some upgrades to the service in smaller communities in the region. Jacobs stated there have been towers put up, or are scheduled to be put up, in five communities in the area. Lang, McTaggart, Midale, Fillmore and Odessa are receiving towers which are designed to provide coverage for the community, as well as the immediate surroundings.

“It’s not one of those really large ones you would see out on the highway that needs to serve 30 kilometres or wider,” Jacobs added. He also explained SaskTel is constantly evaluating the performance of their network to determine where more capacity is required. To help, they will add carriers to a specific cell site, or add new cell sites, to help eliminate congestion.

“Maintaining a cell network isn't just about adding more towers,” Jacobs said. “It’s about managing the traffic and it's about identifying what is the best solution to address the concerns we have today that we have today and going forward.”