Cartt.ca IN-DEPTH: Data challenges drive capex needs at Crown Corp, too, says SaskTel CEO Ron Styles

IT’S PRETTY UNUSUAL for dropped cellular phone calls to be mentioned in a Speech from the Throne. But, that’s exactly what happened last fall when Saskatchewan Lieutenant-Governor Gordon Barnhart said in that speech that “improving digital and electronic infrastructure is essential to the new economy,” and that “(d)ropped cell phone calls are still a problem, despite an increased investment in SaskTel’s 4G network of $170 million in my government’s first term.” SaskTel’s ownership – the taxpayers of Saskatchewan – is a holdover of the past, when many telcos were government-owned. While its competitors feel competing against the government is unfair,...