cellular service

The Mobile Telephone Service (MTS) is a pre-cellular VHF radio system that links to the PSTN. MTS was the radiotelephone equivalent of land dial phone service. As of 2005, only rural and wilderness areas are still using the system.

MTS uses 25 VHF radio channels in the United States and Canada. The channels are identified by pairs of letters taken from positions on a North American telephone dial that, when changed to digits, form (for 12-channel mobile sets) 55, 57, 95 and 97.

These channels are prone to network congestion and interference since a radio closer to the terminal will sometimes take over the channel due to having a more powerful signal. They are easy to find, use. Many MTS frequencies are now used for local paging services. They are only found in some parts of rural North America, having been replaced in most areas by cellular service in the 1980s and later.

The service territory of NorthwesTel has only eliminated four MTS locations during 2004, since cellular is available and the company had to rent tower space, making them even more unprofitable. The remainder of the MTS network is still operating, though at a deficit, virtually blanketing the Yukon and northern British Columbia highway network, the western Great Slave Lake region, the Mackenzie River and the Mackenzie Delta. Cellular service is too costly to install in these areas.