Country Towns Editorial

I was quite surprise to get a response from SaskTel within days of my last blog. It does appear I have ruffled some feathers. It wasn't an angry email, nor threatening, rather it had the air of having been offended by my comments and views.

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Here is the letter I received by email:

I thought I would respond directly to your post about SaskTel’s satellite internet offering announced earlier this month. You say that Xplornet dealers are advertising equipment costs discounted to $50 and monthly rates as low as $49.95 for Saskatchewan customers. To check out your story, we contacted the company that provides Xplornet, Barret Xplornet Inc. (BXI). They assured us that they have never authorized such a deal from any of their dealers. They confirmed that our monthly rates and equipment costs are lower than anything they offer in Saskatchewan or Manitoba. (BXI does offer a $49.95 package in Manitoba, but for download speeds of 512 kbps over a three-year contract. We are not offering any download speeds slower than 1 Mb.) As well, BXI and its dealers charge an additional $99 activation fee, and we have no such fee. Given these differences, BXI is fully expecting the majority of their existing Saskatchewan customers to switch to SaskTel to take advantage of our lower rates.

Your posting also implies that Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) does not “qualify” as high speed. In fact, DSL is our fastest commercial internet service. It is what we offer in Saskatoon, Regina, and more than 200 other locations throughout the province. Beyond these zones, we provide fixed wireless solutions using towers that have a thirty kilometer range. Our partnership with BXI to offer satellite service is intended to fill in the remaining blank areas, which are amongst the lowest in population density in the province. As well, satellite allows a service provider to reach areas where the terrain (trees, valleys, hills) make it difficult to receive a fixed wireless signal.
As most people understand, while wireless options do not compare with DSL in terms of service continuity and speed, they provide the only affordable high speed solutions for some locations.

As much as we would like to see the entire province enjoy the same service quality and speed, no service provider can afford to provide DSL to thinly populated regions without a huge subsidy. Satellite and fixed wireless are the only cost-effective solutions available for these regions. Finally, you imply that we have hidden the apportionment of our network expansion budget and are spending the minimum on expanding high speed access in rural areas, while devoting the remaining budget to improving cellular service. In fact, if you look at our original news release on the subject in November, 2008 (available at http://sasktel.com/about-us/news/2008-news-releases/premier-announces-100-per-cent-hs-internet-coverage-for-sask.html ), you can see that we outlined initial estimates for each element of the high speed expansion project.

I hope this clears up any confusion about our new satellite offering and partnership with BXI.

Robert Watson
SaskTel President & CEO

The email challenged some of the points I made. Without going into detail, I can assure you I have double check my facts and have detect no errors in the research I did prior to that post.

You say that Xplornet dealers are advertising equipment costs discounted to $50 and monthly rates as low as $49.95 for Saskatchewan customers. To check out your story, we contacted the company that provides Xplornet, Barret Xplornet Inc. (BXI). They assured us that they have never authorized such a deal from any of their dealers.

That claim was based on a flier I received in the mail about two weeks prior to the post. It was from a dealer in Manitoba.

They confirmed that our monthly rates and equipment costs are lower than anything they offer in Saskatchewan or Manitoba. (BXI does offer a $49.95 package in Manitoba, but for download speeds of 512 Kbps over a three-year contract. We are not offering any download speeds slower than 1 Mb.)

So it appear I compared apples and oranges, at least in their eyes. As a dial up user going from 24-42 Kbps, 512 sounds just fine to me, so why must I pay for the high speed just because I am a Saskatchewan resident. When you enter you postal code on Xplornet's web site, you aren't given all the options, just the new SaskTel deal.

As well, BXI and its dealers charge an additional $99 activation fee, and we have no such fee.

Great! That's one savings for us!

Your posting also implies that Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) does not “qualify” as high speed. In fact, DSL is our fastest commercial internet service.

OK, so a little out of touch there. Granted the average person switching from dial up to DSL is thrilled with their new speed, experienced computer users usually laugh when you use DSL and high speed in the same sentence. I will give them one thing, their DSL in cities like Regina and Saskatoon probably is fast and efficient. However DSL in small towns rely on limited and sometime dated hardware. DSL degrades by distance. DSL is only as good as the lines and hardware that distribute it.

As most people understand, while wireless options do not compare with DSL in terms of service continuity and speed,....

So maybe they aren't always listening. Most people don't understand any of the differences, most people just want to turn on their computer and use it, they don't really care about the technical stuff unless it stops them from enjoying the internet. Again, it appears DSL option in small towns does not perform as well as that in cities. Modems losing connections and constantly having to reconnect is not synonymous with "service continuity". I have used both DSL and Wireless, I found the wireless to be faster and far more reliable. For that matter, the wireless tops satellite too.

Finally, you imply that we have hidden the apportionment of our network expansion budget and are spending the minimum on expanding high speed access in rural areas, while devoting the remaining budget to improving cellular service. In fact, if you look at our original news release on the subject in November, 2008 ... you can see that we outlined initial estimates for each element of the high speed expansion project.

Yes, I DID read that announcement 8 months ago, but my post was based on the most recent one declaring “SaskTel is pleased to offer high speed internet service to all its customers in Saskatchewan,” SaskTel President and CEO Robert Watson said. “This is a great accomplishment as Saskatchewan will be one of only two provinces in Canada that provides the service to 100% of the province.. Just because the plan was outlined a certain way 8 months ago, doesn't mean that's how the money will be spent. Plans get revised all the time. Now that SaskTel can say they have 100% high speed coverage in the province using their deal with BXI, whats to stop them from revamping their plan? Don't get me wrong I'd love a better cell network in rural areas and if millions got spent on cell towers, I won't argue, just as long as they don't throw in some high speed improvements like a pat on the head to rural residents, only to get some PR brownie points. I am not saying they are changing the plan. That's why they call this a blog, it's my personal opinion.

Absent from his reply was my inference that with VoIP (Voice over Internet,like Vonage) phone services are not compatible with Satellite, mainly because satellite goes out a lot in bad weather, just like your TV and redundant with DSL, because you still need a SaskTel land line to use it. Guess I was right about those claims.

Also absent was any response to my problem with the high cost of installation. Maybe SaskTel will consider sponsoring the CRTC certification here in Saskatchewan? Last I checked its only available in Winnipeg for our Region.

I will admit that my posts are tainted. I am a very dissatisfied SaskTel dial up customer. Though my dial up package is supposed to only cost me $20 per month, I often pay $40 -$60 because SaskTel says 5 hours a day for three users is plenty of time and rakes me over the coals every time I go over. Irony, isn't it? If I had even DSL 5 hours a day might do it, but at the average 30kbs adding in SaskTel servers freezing up (more frequently now than ever) and having to disconnect and reconnect to keep going the time starts adding up. I subscribed to the Accelerated dial up for an extra $5 per month. Sometimes it works. I have to disabled it to check my email, if I have to disconnect and try again because of a server problem, it crashes my browser, meaning I have to wait for those pages to reload again, even cached that time adds up. Sometimes, it doesn't work at all. If I get a connection between 32 and 42 Kbps it randomly disables itself and tells me "High speed internet connection detected...."
I've tried calling support a few times but gave up after 15-20 minutes on hold. I've tried going through the web site and can't even get to the point where I can submit my problem because SaskTel's web site is highly incompatible with dial up (I've tried using different browsers too).

And of course, the last thing that's really eating away at me. I have gone to the Xplornet web site (because I can't access Sasktel's) and requested a quote for my residence. No response. Guess they read my blog too. Oops.