Sasktel says it is investing about $324 million of capital in Saskatchewan in the 2020-21 fiscal year and over $1.4 billion over the next five years. The Crown Corporation says the work will ensure that customers continue to enjoy some of the most advanced wireless, internet, television, data, and IP-based technologies and services in the world. $78.9 million of that will be for rural wireless enhancements.
Highlights of 2020-2021 core Saskatchewan investment program include:
$73.0 million for Fibre to the x (FTTx) program. FTTx is an ambitious initiative designed to upgrade SaskTel’s wireline broadband network to meet ever-growing customer demands for bandwidth by upgrading the existing infrastructure and bringing infiNET, SaskTel’s cutting-edge fibre optics network, directly to customers’ homes and businesses. This program aims to pass 100% of the homes in the nine major centres by the end of the 2022/23 fiscal year. In addition, SaskTel anticipates that 100% of the homes will be passed in Emerald Park, Humboldt, Martensville, Melfort, Melville, Nipawin, Tisdale, Warman, and White City by the end of the 2021/22 fiscal year.
Work includes:
o $50.0 million – Fibre to the Premises Program (FTTP) in the nine major centres.
o $12.0 million – Fibre to the Premises Program (FTTP) outside of the nine majors.
o $11.0 million for Fibre to the Business (FTTB)
o In 2020/21, the FTTx program is forecasted to pass approximately 33,000 homes while connecting 21,000. The program also aims to pass 1,300 businesses and connecting 1,200.
The fibre optics technology powering infiNET allows SaskTel to deliver amazingly fast speeds that currently reach up to 300 Megabits per second (Mbps), while also having the capacity to significantly increase speeds over time as customers needs evolve. With these speeds, customers can surf, stream, and share digital content like never before without having to worry about usage limits. In addition, maxTV gets even better with infiNET, delivering a truly immersive entertainment experience that allows subscribers to connect up to 7 set-top boxes – all with HD and recording capabilities.
$35.0 million for wireless network enhancements
o $ 28.4 million – Long Term Evolution (LTE) enhancements – The 4G LTE network covers 99% of the population of the province and provides data speeds approximately 10 times faster than 4G allowing customers to stream HD movies, high quality video and music, share pictures and videos, game faster than ever before and download applications lightning fast. (LTE and UMTS-HSPA)
o $2.1 million – SaskTel selectWI-FI expansion.
o $4.5 million – Wireless network demand and growth including $2.6 million for Long Term Evolution – Time Division Duplex (LTE-TDD) Fusion capacity enhancements.
$78.9 million for rural wireless enhancements
o A multi-phase initiative to provide rural communities with enhanced access to reliable cellular and high speed internet services.
$77.6 million on several initiatives to meet wireline network growth
o Network modernization- $17.0 million
o Access and Core Demand and Growth – $40.0 million
o Community Participation Programs and Partnerships – $2.4 million
o maxTV Growth – $9.0 million
o Customer Premise Equipment (CPE) – $9.0 million
o Other network enhancement – $.2 million
$60.0 million to improve customer services through continued investment in Information Technology (IT) and Information Systems (IS) platforms and service enhancements. Key initiatives include:
o Customer Delivery Evolution to implement workforce management capabilities that will enable SaskTel to respond to customer demands more efficiently.
o Service Management Transformation to enhance the self-serve capabilities of Business customers.
o Business Tools Evolution Project which will implement the Core Customer Relationship Management capabilities that provide the foundation to evolve SaskTel’s business customer focused systems and processes.
o Policy Charging & Control to support faster wireless network speeds through carrier aggregation.
