Industry committee  We don't own very many poles. The vast majority of our backbone is buried. We don't have any issues there.

Industry committee  We do not, but others do.

Industry committee  We're using the unpaired 2500 blocks for our service.

Industry committee  No, that was auctioned off. In fact, some of the surplus 2500 is being auctioned off. We're not eligible because we have too much cellular 2500. That's why we're going to continue to be spectrum constrained.

Industry committee  Yes, it's just that in the 2500 there are these unpaired blocks, and they can be used for fixed wireless.

Industry committee  I think that is more applicable to the cellular end of the business, and we're not running into spectrum constraints with respect to the cellular end of the business.

Industry committee  Well, to state the obvious, it doesn't come anywhere close to what's needed to get to 50-10, but I think the ISED program is to get to 5-1. It seems that the $500 million will get the country there, but I think the issue is that it comes down to these hexagons. I've heard people talk to the committee about the hexagons.

Industry committee  At the moment that would require fibre to go to the farms and acreages. We don't have a number for that, but it—

Industry committee  It would be $5 billion, probably. It's not affordable, in our opinion, to plow fibre to every farm. I know there was somebody from the States who talked about it. Huge money has come out of their universal service funds to fund that fibre to the farms.

Industry committee  Our huge focus at the moment is around cellular. Having listened to other witnesses, people tend to just talk about Internet in general, but cellular can take you a long way in terms of Internet connectivity. We are working with the provincial government at the moment to try to figure out the cost or do the cost-benefit analysis of expanding cellular into the underserved areas we have in the province.

Industry committee  Our towers are regulated by the CRTC and Industry Canada. We work with those entities through our wholesale group either to allow them to access our towers or provide them with what they need in backbone and those sorts of things. Probably the best example of a not-for-profit in our scenario would be Access Communications.

Industry committee  Speaking about cellular service, we are the fourth provider in the province, so we have an extremely competitive marketplace here in cellular service. However, at the end of the day, Bell and Telus ride on our network, so they effectively resell SaskTel service. Rogers has their own network, but it's pretty well restricted to the major cities and the major highway corridors.

Industry committee  Thank you for the opportunity to appear. I've had the pleasure of working for SaskTel for over 40 years, 30 of which have been in a senior executive capacity. I saw our crown corporation deliver individual line service, cellular, and Internet throughout the province for the very first time.