Cellphone coverage, or lack thereof, through a good portion of southeast Saskatchewan worries an RM of Estevan councillor and farmer, Dennis Blackburn.
In fact, the situation has frustrated him enough that he has circulated a petition among a regional sector of RM of Estevan residents, asking SaskTel to address the situation sooner, rather than later.
A SaskTel representative later told the Mercury that help just might be there a lot sooner than the petitioners expected.
Blackburn, who represents Division 3 on the Estevan RM council, said that in today’s world, farmers and ranchers would normally rely heavily on their cellular phones for connecting to family, businesses and emergency services.
“There could be equipment breakdown, weather exposure issues, or a flood, exactly what happened around here in 2011 and in other parts of the southeast region last summer,” Blackburn said.
“Safety is the biggest issue. In 2011’s flood I had to get out of my farm and move over a mile before I could get cell contact. My telephone land line was washed out and I wasn’t able to get off the farm for a while. I felt pretty vulnerable with no communication capability.
“So what happens if someone else gets caught in machinery but has a cellphone in a pocket he can reach, but it won’t work because he’s in a non-coverage area?”
Blackburn said he and others have made repeated requests to SaskTel for improved service in the region, so “they know it’s a problem, but so far they haven’t done anything about it.”
The local producer said he drew up the petition on his own and has circulated it as a simple rural resident, not as a council representative. He started circulating it in mid-October and by Oct. 28, had 60 signatures.
Some of the problem areas are identified around Outram and Shand, and SaskTel’s two regional towers, he said, simply aren’t doing the complete job.
Michelle Englot, spokeswoman for SaskTel, told the Mercury that the Crown company has recognized the problem and that by mid-November, some answers/solutions might be included in their continued rollout of expanded and strengthened services.
“The southeast is geographically diverse,” Englot said. “Increased coverage is important and the company has made progress in cell coverage and high-speed Internet service. We’ve made significant progress in 54 rural communities in the past few months and increase in capacity up to 4G wireless is coming in 111 communities in the southern part of the province very soon. I would suggest looking at mid-November for more capacity in more regions, and I believe a number of these communities are in the southeast,” Englot added. “We know customers are using more applications and data growth means we have to keep up with that capacity.”
Blackburn said he was intending to present the petition to Estevan MLA Doreen Eagles and would send a copy of it to the government minister responsible for that Crown Corporation as well as Ron Styles, SaskTel’s president, although that can be trickier.
“I asked the last SaskTel representative to give me Mr. Styles’ mailing address, but she wouldn’t do that,” he said with a chuckle, suggesting he might have to do a little bit of homework to ensure Styles would receive it. “My last attempt at sending him a letter of concern I’m pretty sure got lost in the bureaucratic wilderness.”
Residents at Boundary Dam, as well as farmers and ranchers in that region, are also sometimes hampered by lack of cellular coverage, the farmer said.
“It’s difficult these days when you come to realize that a cellphone won’t do you any good,” Blackburn added. “I think we need to have lip service replaced by an action plan.”
According to SaskTel’s representative, that action plan might now be pretty swift.
