SaskTel to deepen rural broadband coverage in 21 communities

SaskTel has taken another step to connect more rural communities to broadband, announcing that it will start offering up to 10 Mbps DSL service in 21 new communities.

This is the latest element of its long-term plan to not only increase DSL access to 200 existing DSL communities, but also expand its DSL network into more than 50 rural communities that had no other option to connect to the Internet besides a dial-up connection.

Expansion into these communities is part of the telco's longer-term strategy in rural Saskatchewan that it introduced during the 2013 Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities annual conference.  

"By providing these communities with access to even higher speed Internet, our government is opening up doors for entrepreneurs that want to live outside of our major centers but still need access to how business is done in the world today," said Don McMorris, minister responsible for SaskTel.

The telco has made considerable progress with its rural program.

In January, it announced that it would enable residential and business customers in four communities to get access to the service provider's High Speed Basic Level 2 package that offers speeds of up to 5 Mbps.

Providing broadband access has become a major priority for the telco. In its more urban areas, SaskTel is deploying Fiber to the Premises (FTTP)-based services as part of a broader $800 million FTTP program. 

For more:
- see the release

Related articles:
SaskTel employs Oracle to create common IMS service core
SaskTel extends Internet service to four new rural communities
SaskTel to light up FTTP network in Prince Albert
SaskTel, Alcatel-Lucent complete 400G trial