REGINA – SaskTel announced today it has launched a Rural Broadband Partnership Program to help bring broadband connectivity to rural Saskatchewan.
The initiative “will see SaskTel partner with internet providers to bring advanced broadband connectivity to underserved farms, acreages, Indigenous communities and other hard to serve rural areas in Saskatchewan,” a press release says.
“We are firmly committed to connecting the people of Saskatchewan, and even though we have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in our rural networks across the province, we understand that there are areas we can’t reach alone,” said Doug Burnett, SaskTel president and CEO, in the press release.
“With the Rural Broadband Partnership Program, we’ll be better able to bridge the digital divide that exists in some areas of Saskatchewan and ensure that more rural families and businesses can take advantage of the latest digital tools and technologies to connect, learn, and pursue business opportunities.”
Wood River Controls was the first provider to partner with SaskTel, and “has already utilized the program to bring broadband service to the Last Mountain Lake area, the Muscowpetung First Nation and is also working on a project near Lake Diefenbaker.”
Other providers currently signed on to the Rural Broadband Partnership Program include H and K Rural Networks Inc and Living Sky Internet.
Providers that qualify for the program must have the appropriate licensing, a spokesperson for SaskTel told Cartt.ca in an email.
The program’s “current deployments are wireless in nature,” however, the program could also “be used to deploy last mile wired networks,” the spokesperson said.
There are otherwise few details about the program that are publicly available.
The SaskTel spokesperson told Cartt.ca that due to the competitive market, “there are limited details we are able to share about the program publicly.” The spokesperson did say the program is flexible, and SaskTel will “potentially provide access to infrastructure and/or some capital to organizations that we partner with through the program.” The program is not, however, a grant program like the Universal Broadband Fund.
Internet providers can contact SaskTel Business Sales at 1-844-727-5835 (1-844-SASKTEL) for more information about the Rural Broadband Partnership Program.
