Country Towns Editorial

They have GOT to be kidding!

SaskTel Satellite Internet powered by Xplornet- June 9, 2009 -
SaskTel today announced the launch of SaskTel Satellite Internet powered by Xplornet providing coverage to all areas of Saskatchewan not able to receive SaskTel High Speed Internet.

And you gotta love this part:

SaskTel Satellite Internet powered by Xplornet provides affordable, fast, and easy Internet access packages with speeds of up to 1.0 Mbps or up to 1.5 Mbps starting from $56.95/month.

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OK... for those who haven't been suffering along with dial up , hoping Xplornet install costs would go down in our rural SK areas.... lets start with the fact that, before this announcement, Xplornet dealers from Manitoba have been direct mailing SK border residents about those packages starting at $49.95/month. The equipment cost is being promoted as discounted down to $50 (as per the latest flier in my mailbox last week), yet the Xplornet page that tells you about promotions for your local postal code only give you the SaskTel Deal, with equipment costs at the full $250. and $ 7 more per month on the 3 year contract. No deals.

Apparently SaskTel has one sweet smokescreen to redirect the $129 million into cell phone towers. The deal involves SaskTel forking over $6 million to Xplornet to provide the "service". So they are paying them a token amount of their budget for the privilege of jacked up prices to SaskTel customers. Anyone who lives in Rural SK knows there are almost always deals available for reduced cost of equipment from Xplornet. Its the installs that kills you. $200+ for a tech to come from all of 50 km away. The last neighbour I talked to forked out over $700 in the first 30 days, for equipment, install, activation, first months payment and all the other hidden charges, even with a discount deal on her equipment. That's highway robbery! What does it take to install, I've seen it done in 2 hours. And that was on a tough to install situation.

Am I the only one that thinks that if SaskTel is going to do this deal, that these funds should mean lower prices?? Xplornet was already here, SK residents could get there service before this deal.

I've emailed Xplornet (can't get to the right page on SaskTel... their site is not optimized for dial up users), questioning the higher prices. No doubt I'll get a form reply that holds no meaning.

So with the remaining $123 million of the budget will we see 3g cell service? I'd much rather go for the Rogers Rocket.....

A few facts about SaskTel "High Speed" - this deal will mean 100% coverage for the province, but outside the 13 cities most of that will be either DSL or Satellite. DSL only qualifies as high speed is you've never had anything better than true dial up. Satellite is extremely susceptible to weather condition, like prairie thunder storms (not that we get many of those...right!).

Interestingly enough there is yet another bonus for SaskTel NOT providing the true high speed by wireless methods is that both DSL and Satellite Internet mean VoIP phone lines are useless. Too unreliable.
Cool perk for SaskTel, keep the competition out....

Well, I'm sick and tired of waiting for real high speed out here in the country.