SaskTel is putting forward its investment plan for the 2025/26 year, laying out how infrastructure may develop and change over the coming year. In total, they're expecting to invest $456.9 million dollars into a number of areas, including physical and digital infrastructure.
They break those investments down into subgroups, including the following:
- 5G deployment - $111.5 million
In 2025/26, SaskTel says they plan to construct five new cell sites and upgrade more than 170 existing cell sites serving rural, resort, and First Nations communities, as well as major highway corridors and other rural areas to 5G technology.
- Fibre-to-the-x (FTTx) program - $90.5 million
In 2025/26, SaskTel will continue to invest in its Fibre-to-the-Premises and Fibre-to-the-Business initiatives, collectively known as FTTx. These investments expand SaskTel's fibre connections in rural areas, with 60 communities included in its Rural Fibre Initiative, with other work ongoing for nine major urban centres, with a focus on connecting multi-dwelling units and businesses to the infiNET network.
- Aurora program - $83.5 million
In 2025/26, SaskTel wants to continue its Aurora program by completing construction of all eight cell sites and launching infiNET service in as many as 23 northern and Indigenous communities. SaskTel will look to provide the remaining infiNET service for those communities by the end of March 2027.
- Technology - $77.1 million
In 2025/26, SaskTel is investing it's money into enhancing what it calls its "core networks", which include SaskTel select Wi-Fi, maxTV, and its existing access networks.
- Customer services and operations systems - $102.9 million
In 2025/26, SaskTel plans to invest in overall customer experience and grow its customer base through its Customer Relationship Manager (CRM) system, Customer Premise Equipment (CPE), and enhancements to the Information Systems (IS) infrastructure.
“For nearly 120 years, SaskTel has invested in and constructed the networks that connect the people of our province to each other and their world,” said Charlene Gavel, SaskTel President and CEO. “Over half the investments we’ll be making in 2025/26 will be used to expand our fibre optic broadband and 5G networks to residents living in smaller communities, as well as rural and Northern parts of the province.”
Last year, SaskTel put forward $439.8 million for capital investments, with more invested into technology and customer services and operations systems this year and 5G deployment and the Fibre-to-the-x (FTTx) program seeing a decrease this year. The Aurora program was not invested in during the 2024/25 financial year.