Saskatchewan has become the second province in recent weeks to announce plans to make broadband access universal throughout the province. There are a number of ways that distinguish the Province of Saskatchewan’s approach from that announced in PEI a few weeks ago.
To start with, Sasktel is owned by the province. As such, funding for this program represents a strategic investment by its shareholder. Also, Sasktel is following a more rational approach to technology selection, recognizing that a DSL solution does not fit everywhere. Sasktel is using fixed wireless and satellite to get to customers beyond the economic reach of DSL.
It was interesting to see mobile infrastructure in the announcement – adding 50 new digital cellular sites across the province, resulting in coverage for 98 per cent of the population.
But now, the focus needs to be on adoption rates. British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario lead the rest of the country in households subscribing to broadband service. How much of this can be attributed to the state of competition for broadband service in these provinces, with more vigourous rivalry between cable and telco solutions?
As I wrote on Wednesday, now that we have built broadband access for vast majority of Canadians, we need to get more of them to subscribe.