Bell-MTS has provided further details about its announcement earlier this week that cellular phone service is being improved in parts of southeastern Manitoba. The company announced it will enhance coverage with installations in Woodridge, Zhoda and Stuartburn. Dan McKeen, the Vice-Chair of Bell-MTS for western Canada, says the Woodridge equipment will be activated in the coming weeks and outlines the coverage area for that tower.

"Basically, when you have a cell tower, there are a lot of different things that can impact coverage. There's the height of the cell tower, their's the height of the land, there are trees and foliage and everything else around it, but generally, it would be a 12 or 15-kilometre radius around Woodridge."

He adds the type of phone being used can also be a factor in the coverage area. McKeen says the Woodridge cell phone equipment has been installed on an existing tower and that's why it will soon go live. He adds in Zhoda and Stuartburn, they will have to build new towers so those two sites probably won't be ready until about one year from now.

"We would say towards the latter half of 2019, probably a fall-ish time frame. But there are lots of different things that can happen along those timelines. Obviously, it's roughly a year from now so a lot can happen in between now and then, but our expectation is that it would be kind of in the fall of 2019."

When the whole project is complete and with each tower providing service for a 12-15 kilometre radius, there should then be continuous cell phone service from Woodridge all the way west to Stuartburn.