Cell Service along the Alaska Highway
Cell Service along the Alaska Highway is about to get a boost. Beginning sometime in the summer of 2015 a new cellphone service is scheduled to be available to people driving on the Canadian portion of the Alaska Highway.
About 100 new cellphone towers are scheduled to be added along the Alaska Highway in the summer of 2015. This should help to fill in the dead areas or at least to minimize the distances between service areas. While these towers will be owned by a Canadian cellular service company, RuralCom Corporation ("RuralCom"), headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, your phones should provide service via roaming, (roaming charges may apply).
“In addition to bringing new competition to the areas RuralCom will serve, the company expects its network to significantly enhance public safety for all wireless users and travelers whether they are RuralCom subscribers or roamers from other network operators,” says Bob Hillman, president and CEO, in an email to Canada's CBC News.
In the quote above, Bob Hillman refers to "roaming" and "other networks" alluding to the fact that this new network is going to be a significant leap forward for travelers of the Alaska Highway.
Also, this new proposed Alaska Highway Cellular Network will provide nearly contiguous coverage along 1,047 miles (1,685 kilometers) of the Alaska Highway or basically everything between Wonowon, BC all the way to Beaver Creek, Yukon; the Alaska-Yukon Territory border station. Cellular service will be available in most all communities including Fort Nelson, BC, Watson Lake and Whitehorse, Yukon.
Canadian Cellular Providers Service Plans
Most all of your cellular companies phones will work in much of Canada via roaming. We have
personally used both Verizon Wireless and AT&T with good results. For years the most limiting
factor came in cellular coverage along the Alaska Highway, well, with these new towers from RuralCom
we anticipate much of the dead zones to be eliminated. We have already read where RuralCom is
planning their service with roaming in mind. Along with the new towers along the Alaska Highway
will be a number of additional towers in the Inside Passage to service the 1.8 million American
and Canadian cruise ship passengers traveling to and from Alaska each summer. Again this points
to a dedication to attract America's cellular providers to roam their new expanded network of
cellular towers. Basically, your AT&T, Sprint, Verizon or other cell phones should have voice
and text service within the new RuralCom network. This is a welcome upgrade for safety and convenience
too.
ALSO SEE — Roaming Charges in Canada
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