SaskTel is expanding it's 4G LTE cellular services and four southwestern communities will be reaping the benefits.

In a release yesterday by the Saskatchewan government they confirmed the crown corporation is improving cellular service in Lucky Lake, Waldeck, Morse, Prelate, and 38 other rural communities in the province.

Michelle Englot, director of external communications with SaskTel, said they elected to expand to this list of 43 communities for a variety of reasons.

"We're looking at going to locations where the population is the greatest where we haven't expanded too and where there is a potential positive business case," she said. "We also go through a number of steps through the whole process in terms of acquiring land and the approvals for that."

This set of upgrades will cost roughly $4.5 million and is part of phase two of a four-phase initiative by the provincial government to provide rural communities with improved cellular and high-speed internet services.

"SaskTel and the government of Saskatchewan are committed to providing the same services in rural areas as we provide in urban areas," Englot said. "It's something we know the rural folks are looking for and we're looking to improve our network and fill in the coverage gaps anywhere that we can possibly do so."

A tower about 30 meters tall will be installed in each of the communities and all of the towers are slated to be operating by March 31, 2019.

Non-SaskTel users will also reap the benefits of improved services as Englot said they have lots of tower sharing agreements with other mobile phone companies.