Saskatchewan moving to 100% high-speed access

As part of a $129-million plan, the Saskatchewan government has pledged to make high-speed internet accessible to everyone in the province within three years.

Premier Brad Wall, who made the announcement at a news conference Wednesday morning, likened the plan to the "last spike" when the Canadian Pacific Railway was completed.

To make it happen, the government is giving $90 million to the Crown-owned phone company, SaskTel for a program to improve rural telecommunications infrastructure.

Currently, about 86 per cent of the population has access to high-speed internet. SaskTel plans to get to 100 per cent through a combination of wireless and satellite technology.

The program will also see construction of 50 new cellphone towers, increasing cell coverage from the current 96 per cent to 98 per cent.

"It will arguably be the best network in the world," SaskTel president Robert Watson said. "We will have this done as quickly as possible."

Wall said he's heard from many people in rural Saskatchewan about spotty cellular coverage and the government is going to change that.

It's the first major announcement on SaskTel since the goverment declared it was changing its policies on Crown investments to focus on in-province opportunities.

While in opposition, the Saskatchewan Party had been highly critical of such out-of-province SaskTel subsidiaries as B.C.-based Navigata, a money-loser for a number of years.

Within Saskatchewan, SaskTel has been criticized from time to time for expanding into areas that aren't traditional for a government-owned phone company — like television and burglar alarms. 

Asked by a reporter if the $90 million being given to SaskTel amounted to unfair subsidization, Crown Corporations Minister Ken Cheveldayoff said it wasn't.

Of the 187 communities that are scheduled to receive the internet upgrade, only three are currently served by a non-SaskTel provider, he said.

There will also be many opportunities for private contractors to bid on the work as the three-year project proceeds, he said.

The announcement was attracting interest from around the country.

"We are excited to see a government define broadband connectivity as important element of public infrastructure," Iain Grant, president of telecommunications consultancy SeaBoard Group, said in an e-mail message to CBC News.

"This initiative will bring Saskatchewan to [the] forefront of North America (where we'd argue it already almost was). One hundred per cent is a pretty ambitious goal, especially in a territory as big and as disseminated as Saskatchewan."