The Future is SaskTel
If you're looking for where telecom carriers need to go to stay competitive, SaskTel offers plenty of insight. The government-owned carrier in Western Canada is upgrading its residential broadband network to between 40Mbps and 50 Mbps by the end of this year in 10 large centres, and it plans to upgrade the system to 100Mbps by 2016. SaskTel CEO Robert Watson said the need for a bigger pipe is simple: consumers are going to demand an always-on network that can provide super-fast Web surfing, video-on-demand, pay-per-view and high-definition television. What's particularly interesting is Watson's admission that 100Mbps will be attained by rolling out fiber to the home - a strategy being pursued currently by Verizon. Bell Canada insists it can eventually get to 50Mbps by using the less expensive fiber to the node route but it's counting on new compression technology to get the job done. For SaskTel, its decision to move aggressively is based on the need to be ready when competition from cablecos starts to appears. It's a strategy many, if not all, carriers, should examine given the inroads being made by the cablecos in telephony.
Update: It's interesting to read a post today by Om Malik on how BellSouth is winning new DSL business with its higher price 3Mbps and 6Mbps broadband services. It puts some perspective on SaskTel's plans.
January 27th, 2006 at 12:54 pm
SaskTel has announced some equipment purchases recently, so they are definitely in build out mode. Video seems to be a key driver for part of this build out, including an expansion of their MAX IP TV offering.
January 27th, 2006 at 3:16 pm
i forgot to mention that sasktel is getting $74 a month per customer from its max service, which appears to be a pretty nice chunk of change.