(File photo/ CJME News staff)

By Mattea Columpsi/CJME News

SaskTel offers 3 new plans in compliance with CRTC

Jul 23, 2021 | 11:41 AM

SaskTel and other large communications corporations like Bell, Rogers and Telus, are now offering low-cost and occasional-use wireless service plans.

The direction came from the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission of Canada as part of a decision they released on April 15, 2021, to provide Canadians with better access to affordable wireless services for their cell phone/mobile devices.

Greg Jacobs, the external communications manager with SaskTel says the corporation is complying.

“We often don’t get lumped in with the larger carriers because Saskatchewan is a relatively small marketplace,” Jacobs said. “However, because we do own the majority of the wireless market in the province, we were included in this decision.

“Although we were disappointed to be lumped in with them, we do understand the CRTC’s direction.

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Typically speaking, SaskTel offers plans in the province that are significantly better, or at least marginally better than what you can get in other provinces.”

On July 14, three new plans were launched by SaskTel: Talk + Text + Data 15; Talk + Text + Data 35; and noSTRINGS Talk & Text 100 (a prepaid plan).

The speeds being offered as part of those cell packages are 3G, which Jacobs explained are required as part of the direction from the CRTC to offer a data connection.

“The 3G speeds, that’s just going back to the traditional wireless network which still offers everything that the customer would require,” Jacobs said. “The purpose of these plans is to serve a market that doesn’t necessarily have a lot of use for them.

“They don’t use their wireless phone the way that other people would. So they don’t require as fast as a data connection to send emails and things like that, as you would expect to stream videos and share a lot of high bandwidth content.”

Jacobs anticipates that only a small fraction of the public will gravitate towards the new plans.

More information is available at the SaskTel website.