Canadian regional operator SaskTel has launched the Rural Fibre Initiative, a multi-phase investment of over CAD50 million (USD39 million) to expand its 'infiNET' fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) services to an additional 30,000 households and businesses in more than 20 rural Saskatchewan communities over the next four years. infiNET currently offers speeds up to 300Mbps/80Mbps (down/uplink), and SaskTel intends to upgrade to gigabit speeds in due course. Overall, the existing FTTP network currently covers over 321,000 premises in 19 cities/towns of Saskatchewan, according to TeleGeography's GlobalComms Database.

The first phase of the Rural Fibre Initiative will cover Balgonie, Biggar, Langham and Pilot Butte by March 2022, while communities to be included in phase two are expected to be confirmed during 2021.

SaskTel is wholly owned by Crown Investments Corporation, itself controlled by the Saskatchewan provincial government.

Thanks to TeleGeography for this industry update.