This weekend, AT&T will upgrade its towers in the Thief River Falls area. The upgrades may impact service for AT&T customers who live in the Thief River Falls area.

The work will begin at about 8 a.m. Saturday and will continue throughout the day. AT&T users can expect slower than normal data services and potentially a drop of voice services while this work is being done.

AT&T notified Digi-Key and other significant users in the Thief River Falls area. Mike Lorenson, who serves on the Thief River Falls City Council, notified the council and media about the upgrades.

Lorenson, who works as the manager of IT Systems Administration at Digi-Key, noted AT&T will install new hardware for additional capacity. This upgrade is for the lower band 5G spectrum and the first step before millimeter wave. Coupled with other enhancements, users should expect an improved experience using their AT&T cell phones. Speed tests may moderately improve, but access to the available bandwidth will be greatly enhanced. Lorenson used an analogy of adding many more lanes to the highway but not changing the speed limit. As a result, there will be far fewer traffic jams and everyone will get to their destinations more consistently.