Tag: SaskTel

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SaskTel expands 5G network to Cut Knife, various other rural Saskatchewan communities

SaskTel has expanded its 5G services to several rural communities in Saskatchewan.

The hyper-fast data speeds are now available to residents and businesses in the communities of Crooked River, Cut Knife, Quill Lake, and Hanley.

The network, powered by Samsung, offers speeds up to 1.2Gbps.

“Keeping people connected with the latest technologies is critical to everything we do at SaskTel,” Doug Burnett, the company’s president and CEO, said. “With our 5G network we’re able to deliver an enhanced wireless experience that will ensure our customers can continue to connect to what matters to them, today and well into the future.”

The expansion is part of the company’s plans to invest $1.5 billion across the province over the next five years. The company previously expanded its 5G network to other communities as well, including Craven.

Image credit: SaskTel

Source: SaskTel

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Mobile Syrup

SaskTel improving 4G LTE data capacity in dozens of rural communities

SaskTel is investing $10 million to “significantly improve” 4G LTE data capacity in 30 communities.

The investment will go towards installing Samsung Radio Access Network (RAN) equipment and improving the data capacity for the wireless network that serves the communities by more than 100 percent. The move will allow customers to avoid slowdowns caused by network congestion.

The company says work has already begun, and it will finish most of the tower upgrades by March 2023.

“In addition to enhancing the wireless experience that our customers receive today, these upgrades will lay the foundation for the deployment of 5G in the future as we continue our work to bring the next generation in wireless technology to our customers across the province,” Doug Burnett, SaskTel’s president and CEO, said.

Lake Alma, Bruno, and Norquay are some of the communities that benefit from the investment. A complete list is available on SaskTel’s website.

The announcement is part of the company’s commitment to invest $1.5 billion in projects across the province in the next five years. Other projects the company announced under this figure include expanding its 5G network to Craven and its Rural Fibre Initiative.

Image credit: SaskTel

Source: SaskTel

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Mobile Syrup

SaskTel’s Rural Fibre Initiative brings infiNET to the Town of Kindersley

SaskTel’s Rural Fibre Initiative has allowed most homes and businesses in the Town of Kindersley to be connected to its infiNET service.

The company says the service delivers fast internet speeds (close to 1Gbps) and connects customers with the latest digital tools and technologies.

“As Saskatchewan’s homegrown communications leader, we are firmly committed to providing the people of our province the advanced communications technologies and services they need,” Doug Burnett, SaskTel’s president and CEO, said. “With infiNET service now available throughout most of the community, our customers in the Town of Kindersley are better equipped than ever to connect to the world around them.”

The company has invested $100 million in the initiative it announced back in 2020. The program is being completed in phases and will connect 60,000 customers in 45 rural communities by the end of next year.

Kindersley falls under the second phase of the initiative. SaskTel previously announced that the initiative’s first phase is 95 percent complete, bringing infiNET to the communities of Balgonie, Biggar, Langham and Pilot Butte. 

Image credit: Town of Kindersley 

Source: SaskTel

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Mobile Syrup

SaskTel expands maxTV Stream to three northern communities

SaskTel has made its television and entertainment service, maxTV Stream, available to the communities of Northern Villages of Pelican Narrows and Sturgeon Lake, as well as Pelican Narrows 184B of the Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation.

The service combines traditional television with content from Netflix and YouTube. It offers multiple features, including Restart TV, which allows users to restart live TV up to 72 hours after a show aired.

“As Saskatchewan’s homegrown communications leader, we take great pride in serving the people of our province, and we’re excited to bring maxTV Stream to these communities,” Doug Burnett, SaskTel’s president and CEO, said.

The company’s maxTV Stream expansion is part of its plans to invest $1.5 billion in capital projects across Saskatchewan over five years. Other projects under the capital funding include SaskTel expanding its 5G network and launching the Rural Fibre Initiative.

Image credit: SaskTel

Source: SaskTel

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Mobile Syrup

SaskTel expands 5G network to Craven, nearly completes phase one of Rural Fibre Initiative

SaskTel has expanded its 5G network to Village of Craven, providing users with speeds up to 1.2Gbps.

Samsung powers the network, and SaskTel says it will provide increased capacity and ultra-low latency when fully deployed.

The expansion will cover the grounds hosting the Country Thunder music festival, which will take place this week. The company last announced a similar expansion for Saskatoon in March.

“At SaskTel, we recognize the true potential of 5G and are pleased to bring our new network to Craven,” Doug Burnett, SaskTel’s president and CEO, said. “Being the first community outside of Regina and Saskatoon to receive 5G service, we’re extremely excited to test the network and its capabilities in a unique setting which will help us further develop the technology as we work to expand our 5G network to all corners of the province.”

The expansion is part of the company’s commitment to invest $1.5 billion in Saskatchewan over the next five years.

Rural Fibre Initiative

Also part of the $1.5 billion commitment is the company’s Rural Fibre Initiative. The project will bring advanced fibre optics to rural families and businesses in the province through SaskTel infiNet service.

Today the company announced the first phase of the project, valued at $100 million, is 95 percent complete, allowing most of the homes and businesses in Balgonie, Biggar, Langham, and Pilot Butte communities to connect to infiNet service. It delivers speeds “close to” 1Gbps, and SaskTel will complete the project in four phases.

Image credit: SaskTel

Source: SaskTel

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Mobile Syrup

SaskTel’s 2021/2022 fiscal year pulls in $104.4 million net income

Saskatchewan-based telecom provider SaskTel reveals it pulled in millions in revenue during the 2021/2022 fiscal year.

Its annual report shows the company made $1,300.9 million. Wireless network services represented 47 percent of the revenue, fixed broadband about 22 percent, wireline communications 13.6 percent, and maxTV services represented almost 8 percent.

The company’s revenue decreased by $16.8 million compared to its last report. SaskTel says declines in legacy wireless services and demands for customer premise equipment played a role.

But the company reports that fixed broadband, data revenue growth and an increase in wireless revenues offset this figure.

SaskTel’s broadband internet subscribers grew by three percent, and wireless subscribers grew by 1.3 percent, compared to its last annual report.

Capital expenditures

SaskTel reports it spent just over $465.1 million over the past year. A majority of the funds (31.5 percent) went towards its wireless spectrum.

SaskTel’s capital expenditures profile. Image credit: SaskTel

As of March 31st, the company has over 1,000 cell towers, including 700 in rural parts of the province, as part of its wireless network.

Image credit: SaskTel

Source: SaskTel

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Mobile Syrup

Regional providers charging less for wireless, broadband, and mobile internet services in most cases: study

Aerial view of mobiel phone cell tower over forested rural area of West Virginia to illustrate lack of broadband internet service

A study prepared for the Government of Canada found national flanker brands are charging more for wireless services in some cases than regional providers.

The study also found a similar difference in prices for wholesale-based competitors and regional companies providing mobile internet services.

The study, commissioned every year for Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, examines the three categories over “service baskets” or levels. Each category has a different number of baskets that reflects service volumes that capture usage levels by Canadians.

Mobile wireless

The study examined wireless services on eight different levels. Level one included voice minutes and texts. Level 2 only involves 1GB of data. Levels three to eight include unlimited talk and text, with varying amounts of data.

The comparison found prices offered by regional providers, including Freedom, SaskTel, Xplore Mobile, Videotron, and Eastlink, are between 6 and 22 percent lower than national incumbents, including Bell and Telus. Prices mostly greatly contrasted between incumbents and regional providers in Ontario and BC, where Freedom offers services.

The study also found that incumbents that offered flanker brands (Virgin, Fido, and Koodo) didn’t always provide the lower cost. “Flankers were higher priced 15 times and lower-priced 13 times. We do note that regional provider prices were consistently lower than flanker prices in Ontario and BC.”

Reseller plans that offer the same service levels as national providers were consistently priced lower. Most regions examined in the study also had a service provider or reseller available that charged less for specific levels than national providers.

Internationally, Canada, the U.S., and Japan have the highest wireless prices. The analysis found Japan charged more for all levels than Canada, except for Level 8, which features unlimited talk and text and between 20 and 49GB of data.

Fixed broadband internet

The study broke download speeds into seven different levels. Level one involved speeds between 3 and 9Mbps. Level seven involves speeds greater than 500Mbps.

Where both parties offer plans, incumbents offer higher prices than wholesale-based competitors (WBC) on four levels, all on the lower end of speeds. WBC plans are priced 8 to 18 percent lower. But the opposite is true for services with faster speeds. WBC plans cost 15 percent more than the incumbent.

Overall, Canada has higher prices on most levels than the U.S. Canada also saw higher prices in 2021 compared to 2020 on almost all levels. Comparatively, prices in the U.S. have been declining over the last couple of years. Compared to Japan, Canada has higher prices on the three lower levels.

Mobile internet

The study includes four levels: level one includes mobile plans with 2 to 4GB of data a month, level two includes 5 to 10GB of data, level three has 11 to 49GB, and level four includes plans with 50 to 99GB of data.

The study found regional providers are charging 25 percent less than incumbent providers for level one in all provinces except Quebec. For level two it’s 21 percent less, level three is 18 percent less, and level four is 37 percent less, respectively. Regional providers are uniformly charging more for mobile data than incumbents in Quebec.

Image credit: Shutterstock 

Source: Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada

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Mobile Syrup

SaskTel donates funds and services for Ukrainians settling in Saskatchewan

SaskTel is donating $50,000 to the Canadian Congress of Saskatchewan (UCC).

The Saskatchewan-based telecommunication provider said the one-time donation will go towards supporting Ukrainian refugees coming to the province. Residents have been fleeing the country following Russia’s invasion. The war started in February and continues today.

“At SaskTel, we recognize how fortunate we all are to live and work in our wonderful province, and we are pleased to provide this donation to the UCC as they tirelessly work to ensure Ukrainians coming to Saskatchewan have what they need to acclimatize to life away from their home,” Doug Burnett, SaskTel’s CEO, said.

The company will also offer Ukrainians settling in the province free prepaid wireless services. MobileSyrup will share more details when they’re made available.

This is SaskTel’s latest action to assist Ukrainians fleeing the war. In February, the company announced it would waive fees for customers contacting loved ones in Ukraine. The offer, renewed in March, is set to expire on June 30th.

Image credit: SaskTel

Source: Sasktel

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Mobile Syrup

Large telecom companies want the CRTC to find another way to pay for next-generation 9-1-1

Telecom companies associated with the roll-out of next-generation 9-1-1 (NG9-1-1) services are asking the commission not to use money dedicated to other telecommunications services as a funding source, according to reporting from Cartt.ca.

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has been working to figure out how to fund NG9-1-1 for some time, which comes with a $55 million price tag.

As the publication reports, telecom companies will pass the cost of the service to customers. But the cost larger telecom companies will be passing on is a lot less than the smaller companies.

The CRTC wants to use the National Contribution Fund (NCF) to alleviate cost concerns and asked companies to provide feedback. The money in the fund comes from service providers and partially pays for video relay services for customers with speech and hearing impediments.

Large telcos

In a submission, Telus said the CRTC should not access the funding through the NCF. In a second submission, the company said the commission should reclassify smaller operators as originating network providers (ONPs). Doing so will eliminate the current problem as they won’t have the tasks, and costs, associated with being an NG9-1-1 service provider.

SaskTel also advised against the CRTC dipping into the NCF as doing so could lead to problems given the lack of guidelines and oversight. However, the company said if the CRTC uses the NCF, the money should specifically be used to address “the large costs of subscribers experienced by very small providers.”

Bell proposed an option to have the NCF cover some costs of the service managed by the smaller players, and the rest come from customers.

Shaw and Rogers both stated the NCF shouldn’t be used to fund the process as it could complicate the situation. Québecor also voiced against the funding option.

The smaller players

As Cartt.ca reports, the Public Interest Advocacy Center (PIAC) said the NG9-1-1 networks should receive full funding from the NCF.

Partially funding the program would be “complicating the overall funding process but could also lead to significant cost disparities with respect to the remaining costs in different regions, resulting in end-users residing in remote and/or rural regions paying much more for the same service.”

Via: Cartt.ca

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Mobile Syrup

SaskTel pledges $337 million worth of initiatives for Saskatchewan

Saskatchewan-based technology company SaskTel has committed to investing $337 million in various projects to give residents and businesses access to the services they need.

The crown corporation says they will spend the capital over the 2022-2023 fiscal year.

$82.2 million will go towards the Fibre to the x program, which brings fibre connections to homes and businesses, an area the company has heavily invested in.

The company’s fibre network is known as infiNET and delivers speeds up to 1Gbps.

Here are the details:

  • $22.8 million of the funding will go towards Fibre-to-the-Premises in “nine major centers.”
  • $35 million will bring fibre connection to communities outside of the nine locations.
  • $24.4 million will go towards bringing infiNET to the business community.

An additional $103.6 million will go towards expanding 5G coverage, which is only available in Regina and Saskatoon at this time. A further $7 million will help enhance LTE.

$79.3 million will also grow wireline services and $64.9 million will be spent improving services and operations.

“These investments will further strengthen and expand the networks we rely on today, while also setting the foundation for future technological innovations that will help to drive economic growth, job creation, and improvements in the quality of life for all Saskatchewan residents,” Don Morgan, the Minister responsible for SaskTel, said.”

Image credit: SaskTel

Source: SaskTel