Sasktel focused on rural services
SaskTel is investing millions of dollars to ensure rural residents aren’t treated like second-class citizens when it comes to communicating with each other and the rest of the world.
At the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities annual convention this week in Saskatoon, SaskTel announced plans to expand its wireless and broadband networks in rural Saskatchewan.
“We understand that our rural customers require increased bandwidth capabilities and enhanced communications services in order to compete in the global economy,” SaskTel president and CEO Ron Styles said.
At the SARM conference, Styles outlined details of initiatives aimed at enhancing communications for rural Saskatchewan, including: ■ A seven-year, $57-million initiative to install new fibre optics and other equipment to accommodate growth in demand for fixed and mobile, voice, video, and data services in rural areas.
“The increase in data consumption is growing across the board,” Tara Tibeau, a spokesperson for SaskTel, said. In addition to nine urban centres, “they need more capacity in the rural areas,” she said. ■ Increasing wireline broadband services to rural communities. SaskTel will upgrade speeds in over 200 DSL communities in 2013-14, and expand high-speed DSL beyond the 347 communities that currently have it. ■ Introducing high-speed LTE fixed-wireless products for rural customers, pending completion of a LTE fixed-wireless trial this year.
“We have an ongoing trial for LTE in rural locations that … is scheduled to end in August,” Tibeau said. “Based on the results of the trial, a determination will be made on the feasibility and implementation of LTE service for rural areas.” ■ Investing $10.7 million on the rural 4G cellular network, including work on 31 new towers and 37 network capacity enhancements. ■ Improving cellular locations and speeds with LTE. SaskTel has deployed 4G LTE in Regina, Saskatoon, Balgonie, Clavet, Dundurn, Langham, Lumsden, Martensville, Osler, Pense, Vanscoy, Warman, and White City.
4G LTE will also be extended to Dalmeny, Estevan, Moose Jaw, North Battleford, Prince Albert, Swift Current, Weyburn and Yorkton later this year.
SaskTel also announced this week it has completed another 22 different 4G wireless network infrastructure enhancement projects in February after completing 19 projects in January. In the past 30 months, SaskTel has invested $350 million in its 4G network and will spend $1.6 billion expanding the network over the next five years.
SaskTel is increasing capacity and coverage by deploying other options when traditional towers are not feasible due to space or other limitations.
Those options include installing carrier antennas to increase coverage strength inside of buildings, street lights, rooftops, wooden and stealth poles, well as new cellular sites, such as towers or cellular-on-wheels tower trucks.
“We have a strong, strong focus on rural Saskatchewan this year,” Tibeau said.
“A lot of our initiatives are specifically for rural (customers), and you’ll see a lot more announcements in that regard.”