Chatham Daily News
·Aug 2026
Got a Cellular Dead Zone? MP Wants to Hear About It
MP Andrew Lawton has launched the Cellular Connectivity Project, a public survey documenting mobile dead zones and weak service in Elgin County and surrounding communities. Residents in Port Stanley, parts of St. Thomas and Sparta have reported particularly poor coverage. Lawton says unreliable service creates public-safety risks, including difficulty calling 911, and affects technology-dependent agriculture. He plans to keep the survey open for at least two months and share the findings with the federal government and Rogers, Bell and Telus, which have indicated they may use the data to investigate network gaps and assess the need for new cell towers.