The federal government is investing over $141 million to bring high-speed internet to more than 30,000 homes across 500 rural, remote, and Indigenous communities in Saskatchewan. Buckley Belanger, Secretary of State for Rural Development, announced the Universal Broadband Fund grants on Friday in Humboldt.
For those following, the math works out to $4,700 per home according to the original $141 million figure.
Five regional and national internet service providers were selected to handle the physical infrastructure buildout across the province. Xplore will take on the largest single workload, expanding network coverage to nearly 20,000 homes and businesses.
Beaver River Broadband, an Indigenous-led provider, will lay direct fibre optic cables to homes in the Peepeekisis Cree Nation.
RFNOW Inc. will construct new network infrastructure for rural and First Nations communities, while Stafford Communications Inc. plans to deploy 6 GHz fixed wireless technology capable of delivering speeds up to 1 Gbps. Lastly, MCSnet will carry out a fibre-to-the-tower expansion to boost connection quality in rural areas.
Some would question why not leverage something like Starlink to bring immediate internet access instead of laying down fibre. A 100 Mbps plan is $75/month and the amount spent per home could bring over 5 years of internet per household instantly, which includes free hardware rental.
Ottawa says 89.2% of Saskatchewan households have access to high-speed internet, trailing the national average of 97.4%. Federal officials state that this new funding push helps move the province closer to Ottawa’s goal of reaching 100% national coverage by 2030.
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