The campaign to get improved cellular service to Eastern Ontario was taken directly to a group of technology businesses in the Quinte area recently.
About 40 business people attended a session on the plan presented by Eastern Ontario Regional Network.
Hastings County CAO Jim Pine, who’s been working on the project for a few years, tells Quinte News improving the cell service is about connecting with your smart phone or your mobile device to your cellular network, to travel around your neigbourhood.
“(We) want people to connect, to make that important call, whether it’s a 911 or just a regular call. Be able to do your banking if you need to, over the phone wherever you are in Eastern Ontario, wherever there’s a road that’s travelled and people are living.”
Pine adds, “Phone coverage. There just isn’t any, just a big gap. So we’re going to close those gaps because 99% of Eastern Ontario where people work and travel you can make that cell phone call and you can do more on your mobile device than you can do now because there’s more capacity.”
Pine points out that service in the cities may be fine but it many areas of Eastern Ontario it is not good, or not available at all.
Pine says he hopes the government will announce the contract in March.
