SaskTel 4G wireless customers may have noticed that their phones have been a bit more reliable lately, thanks to recent upgrades made by the Crown Corporation.

Earlier this year, unprecedented network congestion caused by customer demand has led to dropped calls and delayed text messages, prompting SaskTel to increase capacity on their towers.
SaskTel Media Relations Manager Andy Tate says since September, they've added a number of pieces of equipment, including a radio network controller that increases capacity provincewide, and in a number of communities across the province, including Swift Current, they've installed new 1900 MHz carriers, which basically allows them to add more radio frequency channels to address network congestion.
Tate says they are able to monitor from their operations centre whether calls are being dropped and text messages are going through, and they have noticed fewer issues overall since making the repairs, and fewer complaints from customers. He adds the work on Swift Current's towers was completed on October 4th and it takes a few weeks to fine-tune the antennas, but in all of the other locations where the work was completed, they have noticed better service for customers.
Improvements to the 4G network are to continue into 2012, primarily in Regina and Saskatoon.
Colin Powers talked with Andy Tate with SaskTel about their upgrades to the 4G network: