The community of Southend now has cell-phone service.
SaskTel officially switched it on Wednesday evening.
The corporation says it took some time to construct the tower needed for the signal but it’s confident the project will be a success.
Councillor Darren Morin of the Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation says the $1.2 million project was four years in the making.
He notes his own community had to come up with $209,000 of its own and it did so with the help of nine different partners.
Morin says having cell service is a great advantage.
“We can connect to the world now and they will be putting a fibre optic cable in this summer and we’ll have more high speed Internet in our community and it will be connected to health services and education,” he says.
He says an official ceremony to celebrate the cell service launch will be held on Feb. 28.