Bell MTS upgrading rural cell service in southeast Manitoba

Bell MTSis promising significant upgrades to cellular service in southeast Manitoba.

The upgrades include extendingLTE Advanced (LTE-A) wireless coveragein theRMs of Stuartburn, Woodridge and Zhoda.

LTE and LTEAdvanced is a type of high-speed wireless service for mobile devices that allows customers to access the Internet faster.

Woodridge will getLTE data coverage this month, while the other two areas will get LTEin 2019.

The upgrades will also improve cellular servicealong highways12 and59.

Monday's announcement, which was made in the rural municipalityof La Broquerie, is part of Bell MTS's promise to do $1 billion in upgrades following their merger in 2017.

Several dignitaries were on hand for the announcement, including Premier Brian Pallister, who thanked Bell MTS for theinvestment.

"The fact remains that if you don't have that high-speed Internet service, you have a limiting factor, and your kids do too. And people who want to create jobs do too, and investors look at that stuff and say 'Well, maybe we'll go somewhere else;'" he said.

"Not anymore, not for these communities, and for more to come."

It was music to Jim Swidersky's ears.As reeve of the rural municipality of Stuartburn, he watched as wildfires ripped across his region seven years ago.

"Seven years ago the southeast was on fire everywhere," Swidersky said at Monday's announcement.

Swidersky and some of his rural colleagues has relentlessly lobbied for upgrades ever since.

"The challenge was to prove how a low population area deserved upgraded cellular service," Swidersky said.

With files from Sean Kavanagh