SaskTel changing rural high-speed internet service

About 8,000 people in rural Saskatchewan will soon lose their high-speed internet access through SaskTel, which is cancelling its fixed wireless network.

The network will be discontinued at the end of this year, due to broadband spectrum allocation changes being made by Industry Canada.

As well, the equipment needed to maintain the existing network is deteriorating and no longer manufactured, according to the provincial phone company.

Don McMorris, the minister responsible for SaskTel, says it is teaming up with Xplornet Communications to ensure affected customers willcontinue to have broadband internet access.

"We are partnering with a private company to try and get the best service that we can to those three per cent, or about 8,000 SaskTel customers," McMorris said Monday.

Some rural customers are also being offered a 4G mobile internet stick that they can use to get online.

But NDP MLA Buckley Belanger said he isn't happy with how the Saskatchewan Party government has handled the situation.

"They knew this was going to happen 18 months ago. Why didn't they tell the people?" he said.

"Why were the people allowed to buy the hardware and spend all that kind of money, and now many of these people are being forced to look at the private sector?"

SaskTel says customers who sign a three-year deal with Xplornet will not have to pay for new hardware.