SaskTel announces 48 additional communities set to receive infiNET service as part of its $200 million Rural Fibre Initiative

March 8, 2023

Photo courtesy of Tara Burletoff

Today SaskTel announced the 48 communities it plans to bring SaskTel infiNET™ service to as part of the sixth phase of its $200 million Rural Fibre Initiative – see list below for full details. SaskTel currently plans to begin the construction process for Phase 6 in 2023/24 and anticipates all communities included in the Rural Fibre Initiative will be fibre-ready by the end of March 2025.  

"A key part of our government's plan to build a stronger Saskatchewan is to invest the infrastructure that will allow our province to continue to grow and prosper," said Don Morgan, Minister Responsible for SaskTel. "Through the Rural Fibre Initiative, SaskTel is expanding their advanced fibre optic broadband network to towns and villages across Saskatchewan, and ensuring more families and businesses have access to the same online resources, tools, and opportunities as those living in larger urban centres."

"Delivering speeds of up to a Gigabit per second, our infiNET network ensures SaskTel customers have the bandwidth they need to surf, stream, and connect in real-time," said Doug Burnett, SaskTel President and CEO. "In addition, by upgrading our broadband networks to fibre, we will be better able to deploy future enhancements to keep pace with our customer's evolving bandwidth needs, especially as smart technologies become more common in both the home and workplace."

"This important investment from SaskTel will put smaller communities like the Village of Borden on a level playing field in terms of accessing reliable advanced fibre optic broadband technology. This new infrastructure will help us attract new businesses and residents to Borden and help those already living and working in Borden to expand their earning and learning potential. This is a great day for the Village of Borden and all of Saskatchewan. Thank you SaskTel and the Government of Saskatchewan," said Jamie Brandrick, Mayor of the Village of Borden.

The Rural Fibre Initiative is a multi-phase program that will see SaskTel invest $200 million to bring infiNET service to over 110,000 residents and businesses living and operating in more than 130 rural communities. Once the announced phases of the Rural Fibre Initiative are complete, SaskTel's infiNET network, which is already Saskatchewan's largest fibre optic broadband network, will reach approximately 80% of all households in the province.

The continued expansion of its infiNET and 5G networks is a direct result of SaskTel's commitment to invest more than $1.5 billion of capital across Saskatchewan over the next five years. These investments will help Saskatchewan accelerate its transition to becoming a smart province and ensure it remains one of the most well connected regions in the country.

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.

Rural Fibre Initiative – Community List

*Construction is over 95% complete
+Construction has begun