By Medicine Hat News on December 17, 2019.
Areas south of the Cypress Hills, as well as far northern Alberta are still without LTE cellular phone service, according to a new report from the Canadian Radio and Telecommunications Commission. Throughout Canada, 99 per cent of cellphone customers have access to the rating of service, which stands for “Long Term Evolution” and denotes a “4G” standard for speed and data transference. That is up from 95 per cent in 2018. Geographically, towers are enabled on 85 per cent of major national or provincial highways, but missing are the southernmost reaches of Highway 41, south of Secondary Highway 501, near Onefour. Similarly, on the Saskatchewan side of the provincial boundary, Highway 21, leading to the Willow Creek Port of Entry, is denoted as lacking. Elsewhere in Alberta, the other portions of major roadways without the service include the Forestry Trunk Roads, and routes leading to the Northwest Territories from High Level, several near Fort Vermillion, and routes that skirt the Alberta Boundary on route to and from Fort Smith, N.W.T. Most major routes lacking the service are in the interior of B.C., large portions of northern Ontario, northern Manitoba, Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador. 8