SaskTel and South Saskatchewan Ready partner to bring infiNET service to four communities in Southern Saskatchewan

February 6, 2023

Pictured from left to right: Mike Ryan (Councilor Rockglen), Dennis Mazenc (Mayor of Bengough), Sharon Adam (Chair of SSR and Councilor Coronach), Sean Wallace (SSR Managing Director), Dr. Abdul Jalil (Assistant Deputy Minister - Prairies Economic Development Canada), Doug Burnett (SaskTel President and CEO), Doug Kosloski (SaskTel Vice President of Corporate Counsel and Regulatory Affairs), Ron Mamer (Councilor and Deputy Mayor of Coronach)

SaskTel, today announced that it has partnered with South Saskatchewan Ready (SSR) to bring SaskTel infiNET™ service to the communities of Bengough, Coronach, Rockglen, and Willow Bunch. SaskTel plans to begin the construction process in these communities in 2023/24 and anticipates the majority of households will be fibre ready by the end of 2024.

"Today's announcement further demonstrates SaskTel's commitment to bring more advanced and reliable communications services to all corners of our province," said Don Morgan, Minister Responsible for SaskTel. "I applaud those involved with South Saskatchewan Ready for the work they're doing to ensure these communities have the tools necessary to succeed in the modern economy."

Powered by SaskTel's fibre optic broadband network, infiNET service delivers internet speeds reaching close to a Gigabit per second (Gbps), allowing subscribers to surf, stream, and share however much content they want at incredible speeds. Plus, the infiNET network has the capacity to grow to support the evolving needs of SaskTel's customers and increasing popularity of cloud services, video streaming, and smart technologies.

"We're pleased to partner with South Saskatchewan Ready to bring our infiNET network to these communities," said Doug Burnett, SaskTel President and CEO. "This expansion is being facilitated through our Community Participation Program which will allow us to connect these communities to fibre in a shorter timeframe than would otherwise be possible."

"Coal Transition has many economic challenges, especially in rural regions where economies are largely undiversified. SaskTel's fibre optic broadband network will provide our regional population centres with opportunities to compete with larger centres for economic opportunities," said Sharon Adam, Chair, South Saskatchewan Ready.

Through the Community Participation Program, communities provide a portion of the funds required to cover the capital costs to bring SaskTel services to their residents. This program allows SaskTel to expand services quickly and sustainably to areas of the province where it may not otherwise be economically feasible to do so. Since 2013, more than 30 communities have utilized SaskTel's Community Participation Program to improve the communications services available to their residents.

SSR is contributing nearly $2 million of funding they’ve secured from Prairies Economic Development Canada (Prairies Can) towards the project.

For more information about infiNET service, please visit www.sasktel.com/infinet.

About SaskTel

SaskTel is the leading Information and Communications Technology (ICT) provider in Saskatchewan, with approximately $1.3 billion in annual revenue and over 1.4 million customer connections including more than 647,000 wireless accesses, 273,000 wireline network accesses, 293,000 internet and data accesses, 110,000 maxTV service subscribers, and 78,000 security monitoring customers. SaskTel and its wholly-owned subsidiaries offer a wide range of ICT products and services including competitive voice, data and Internet services, wireless data services, maxTV services, data centre services, cloud-based services, security monitoring services, advertising services, and international software and consulting services. SaskTel and its wholly-owned subsidiaries have a workforce of approximately 3,300 full-time equivalent employees (FTEs). Visit SaskTel at www.sasktel.com.