SaskTel’s expansion plans for cellular capacity at Turtle Lake have been temporarily delayed due to an unexpected situation.
Last week it was discovered that a mating pair of bald eagles have nested on the Turtle Lake wireless tower.
“We have decided that it is in the best interest for the safety of our employees and the safety of the baby eagles to delay the tower upgrade until Turtle Lake’s most recent tourists have left the nest,” said Ron Styles, SaskTel president and CEO, last week.
Styles made his remarks in an announcement that SaskTel will be adding additional capacity to its wireless network in the 10 communities in rural Saskatchewan: Candle Lake, Carlyle, Cochin, Greenwater Lake, Kerrobert, Kindersley, Lloydminster, Manitou Beach, Nipawin and Turtle Lake. SaskTel will be adding a network carrier in these 10 communities that will enhance the current tower capacity by 20 to 100 per cent.
Candle Lake, Cochin, and Greenwater Lake have a completion date of the end of June 2015 in time for the July 1 long weekend.
Turtle Lake, Lloydminster and Manitou Beach have a tentative completion date of the end of July 2015.
Carlyle, Nipawin, Kerrobert, and Kindersley have a tentative completion date of the end of September 2015.
“SaskTel is pleased to provide enhanced capacity at these communities to address ongoing demand for bandwidth,” said Styles. “Besides these 10 recent enhancements, SaskTel also completed over 464 4G capacity improvements in 2014 and 2015.”
