Manitobans frustrated by lack of cell service in Waskada area

Michele McDougall · CBC News

· Posted: Aug 21, 2026 6:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: August 21

The daughter of an 83-year-old man from a southwestern Manitoba community said she's angry her dad had to crawl to safety because there was no cell service when he tried to call for help last year — and there still isn't.

Keith Hannah lives less than a kilometre outside of Waskada, which is about 105 kilometres southwest of Brandon. He fell while mowing the lawn last summer and tried to call for help, but there was no cell service.

"Dad ended up having to crawl to his mower, was able to get into his [utility vehicle] and come to town for help," Leanne Hannah said.

"He had his phone, and if he had service, he would have been able to phone us, and we could have come and helped him, called an ambulance, anything. He had a fractured hip and spent over two months in the hospital. I fully believe if we would have had cell service, it wouldn't have gone that far."

A year later, she is still angry because the signal is just as bad.

"It's very frustrating when you get 'call failed,' 'call failed,' 'call failed.' Actually, it just happened the other day," she said.

Leanne Hannah is not alone.

Maurice Saltel, reeve of the Municipality of Brenda-Waskada, said the issue is a matter of safety.

"We have a lot of people working on agricultural equipment, and in the oil patch," he said.

Saltel has contacted Bell MTS, the local provider, about putting up a cell tower.

Bell used to deliver a 3G wireless network but discontinued it. 

"We have indicated to Bell that we are going to work with them to put that in and help, but they don't seem really interested at this point, which is unfortunate," Saltel said.

"But then [they] should be allowing other providers to maybe pick up the challenge. I'm talking about AT&T because we're really close to the border here."

Waskada is roughly 10 kilometres from the United States. As soon as people get close to the community, they get a text message saying, "Welcome to the U.S."

Saltel and many other locals pay for American carriers in case of an emergency but also have plans with Canadian companies such as Bell, Rogers and Telus.

Mark Custance is a councillor in the neighbouring Municipality of Two Borders and has two teenagers who are just starting to drive. Cellphone service is a safety issue, he said.

"We pay over $600 a month for cellular service, and we're not trying to get on TikTok or YouTube. It's about making or receiving a call when we need to," Custance said. 

"I'm on Verizon wireless, and we're not even in the States. If I didn't have that plan, I'd have zero service, and that's just not acceptable. So, there's the added cost for having a service that we never actually get."

There are two Canadian cell towers close to Waskada. Deloraine is about 25 kilometres away, and Melita is roughly the same distance. The Saskatchewan border is roughly 20 kilometres to the west, and that's why several locals use SaskTel.

A Bell MTS spokesperson told CBC even though it discontinued its 3G network, that doesn't mean it is withdrawing from rural communities, saying it is upgrading the network to provide faster data speeds.

"Wireless expansion, such as new cell towers, in rural regions is a challenge for private investment alone and we are open to partnerships with provincial and federal governments to expand our network," the emailed statement said.

Saltel said it's frustrating that data from cell providers shows Waskada is included in an area that indicates 94.6 per cent of populated areas have LTE coverage, which is newer than 3G.

The area is Brandon-Souris, a federal electoral district measuring 19,348 square kilometres.

Brenda-Waskada council took its concerns to Brandon-Souris MP Grant Jackson, who shared their coverage problems with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.

Brenda-Waskada chief administrative officer Shelley Boulet shared a letter with CBC News that the CRTC sent to Jackson Tuesday. In it, vice-president of consumer, analytics and strategy Scott Hutton said, "We recognize though that there are problems with this reported coverage and we are in the midst of trying to rectify them."

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The reporting requirements, Hutton wrote, only include whether mobile coverage exists and not the level of available service in the area.

"This means that residents may have coverage in this area but insufficient signal to use mobile services in the way they wish."

WATCH | Waskada residents frustrated over cellphone service: