The President of South East Sno Riders welcomes this week's announcement by Bell MTS.

On Monday it was announced that three new LTE advanced cellular towers will be built in Woodridge, Stuartburn and Zhoda. According to Bell MTS, the Woodridge tower will go into service this month, while the other two towers will be launched in 2019.

"It's good news obviously," says South East Sno Riders President Mitch Gobeil.

For starters, he says this will benefit their groomers, should they have any problems. He says their groomer operators carry FleetNet phones, which are not always reliable.

Not only that, but Gobeil says this will also be helpful for sledders. He recalls an incident last year near Moose Lake where a snowmobile had issues and two riders needed to trek to Silver Birch Resort and use their phone to call for help.

"I'm positive there's incidents out there because that's the nature of snowmobiling," he says. "You are out in the boondocks and if something goes down you have to rely on yourself I guess."

South East Sno Riders manages about 530 kilometres worth of trails. Gobeil says there is no cell service on approximately half of their entire network of trails. He suggests Monday's announcement is a good start.

"There is definitely more that needs to be done," says Gobeil. "But it is a good start, it's encouraging."

Gobeil says there is a dead zone near Vassar, with no service between that community and Middlebro.

Meanwhile, Gobeil says their snowmobile club is getting ready for another season. He notes they will soon get out on the trails to do the usual fall cleanup. Gobeil says the amount of cleanup this year looks to be the same as normal. He notes in the ice storm of 2012, a lot of trees died but stayed standing. During strong summer winds, those trees are still being knocked down and need to be cleaned up in fall.

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