SaskTel scores $71M contract with province to bring broadband to 366 communities

The Saskatchewan government has finalized a $71-million infrastructure and service contract with SaskTel to extend broadband Internet to all communities in the province by 2004. But unlike Alberta’s ambitious $356-million Supernet network (NL, Nov. 6/00), Saskatchewan has opted for a single carrier model in which the Crown-owned telco will own and maintain the provincial backbone facility. Funding for new CommunityNet network was announced March 30 in the provincial budget, and will be formally launched later this month. Under the six-year contract with SaskTel, all provincial ministries, from education and health to justice, will pool their high-speed needs to become the main customer on CommunityNet. The broadband network will link 366 communities, 839 educational facilities, 379 health facilities, 86 First Nations sites and 249 government offices across the province, using a variety of access technologies, including existing and new fibre, microwave, satellite and copper. The province’s Saskatchewan Communications Network will provide the satellite links. "What we’re doing is essentially acting as an anchor tenant on that network, which will reduce the kind of threshold SaskTel needs to do a commercial undertaking of high speed to various communities," explains Bob Hersche, executive director, planning and policy, for Saskatchewan’s Information and Technology Office. "We’ve aggregated all our high-speed demand for all government departments to become one customer." The provincial government’s information and technology office is coordinating the project, guided by a steering committee of deputy ministers. Finance minister Eric Cline expects that 30 per cent of provincial schools will be logged on to CommunityNet by next spring, with virtually all schools having improved access by 2005. Eight cities in Saskatchewan currently have access to broadband services and CommunityNet seeks to add another eight communities immediately. The government plans to have 70 per cent of the province wired by the end of the project. Once SaskTel rolls out its new 2500 MHz wireless network, the connectivity figure would jump to 90 per cent. The speeds of the network pale in comparison to Alberta, which is promising to deliver 10 Mbs to every community. In Saskatchewan, the speeds will vary from 384 kilobits to a gigabit, depending on the needs of each community. But unlike the Alberta model, institutions will not have to pay for connection or usage costs. "The difference between Alberta’s Supernet and CommunityNet is that if I’m a school in a small location, I will pay a service charge in Alberta to get Internet service and to get access to that pipe," says Hersche, who’s been working on the CommunityNet project for over a year. "A school in Saskatchewan will be provided the Internet service and the pipe, and there’s no charge. The province is paying for it." Part of the $71 million in funding will come from the feds, although Hersche isn’t saying how much until CommunityNet is officially launched. He’s optimistic the project will get further federal support when the government tables its response to the National Broadband Task Force, which releases its final report May 31. The government is looking at ways of doing provincial aggregations. "What we need from the federal government is a methodology somewhat similar to the federal-provincial infrastructure program that allows us to build on CommunityNet in a manner that aggregates all of the province’s high-speed needs, not just the government’s," says Hersche, who sits on the broadband task force. A provincial panel of deputy ministers has also been struck to cooperate with the task force. "We want to build on the kinds of capacities that we have, and build on the kinds of penetration that we’re able to get with CommunityNet," he adds. "For example, I would like better satellite equipment that I can’t afford today. I would like to do better kinds of speeds." Condominium approach rejected Perhaps the main difference between CommunityNet and Alberta’s Supernet is that Alberta insisted on a condominium model, which ensures open access to the network by any company, including competitors to Bell Intrigna, which won the contract to build Supernet. "The services are separated from the fibre optic strands. So any Internet service provider can provide services down that fibre optic strand. They can either buy the strands, or lease them on a long-term or on a monthly basis… It’s like a train track. Bell owns the track, but anyone can run trains down it," Lorne Taylor, Alberta’s minister of Innovation and Science, explained to Network Letter last November. Hersche says the debate over condominium fibre versus a single carrier model is moot , since regulations require telcos to provide competitive access to their network. "The condominium approach people talk about is more theory than not. When building a backbone pipe, under CRTC rules everyone has to be able to have access to that pipe. SaskTel cannot provide undue preference to itself in providing that pipe. So SaskTel, while they will own the pipe and maintain the pipe and expand it, will by regulation be opening this up to other companies, other service providers who may also want to use that pipe to reach specific towns." CommunityNet will be launching a web site later this month (www. communitynet.ca) that will enable people to look up their community online to see when high-speed will be arriving, and what speeds and services will be offered.

SaskTel scores $71M contract with province to bring broadband to 366 communities

News | 04/09/2001 4:00 am EDT

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