Saskatchewan’s provincially owned telecommunications provider has requested another deadline extension for rural users of its wireless broadband internet (WBBI) service to move to a new service.
Some 8,000 SaskTel customers in rural Saskatchewan were first given a deadline in 2012 to move to a new service after Industry Canada announced changes that will see service towers in the province discontinued.
That deadline was later moved to March 31, 2014. The company has now requested Industry Canada further extend it to March 31, 2015.
Most have been encouraged to switch to Xplornet, a satellite service promoted by SaskTel. The move has come with added costs for some customers — data use on that service is capped at 10 gigabytes per month — and complaints about connection quality and speed. The previous SaskTel service had provided unlimited data use.
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For 1,200 customers that can’t access Xplornet, SaskTel is preparing to roll out a new service called high speed fusion internet in early 2014. The company expects to announce plans for deployment in November.
These plans follow TDD-LTE wireless broadband trials announced in 2012 that ended in August.
The service will first be made available to WBBI customers accessing services from towers in 12 locations: Climax, Hodgeville, Milestone, Avonlea, Blewett, Caron, Hirsch, Mankota, Maryfield, Orkney, Pangman and Central Butte.
Leanne Persicke, a spokesperson with SaskTel, said the new service may eventually be extended to other customers in Saskatchewan. But with the deadline request unapproved, the company is continuing to encourage users to switch to Xplornet where available.
“Once we get these 12 towers figured out, we anticipate this would be something that we could further expand to the remaining WBBI towers,” said Persicke.
SaskTel said the new high speed fusion service will cost $79.99 per month and offer download speeds of up to five megabits per second. Data will be capped at 50 gigabytes per month.
