Many people in the province have spoken up in frustration this week as they found out SaskTel plans to soon charge $1.95 for its sasktel.net email addresses, with many wondering why.
SaskTel said on social media that the email platform is costly to maintain. In an email response, the Crown corporation said “the growing investments required to operate, maintain, and enhance our networks and services make it necessary for us to periodically adjust our rates.”
The company pays a third-party vendor, Hostopia, to host and maintain its email system. It has a head office in Canada with other offices in parts of Canada and the U.S.
In the last fiscal year, SaskTel said it paid $599,000 for Hostopia’s services, including email support and service.
About 88,000 SaskTel customers will be impacted by the change, though SaskTel didn’t say how many addresses each of those customers might have. At one time, SaskTel was offering multiple free addresses for customers.
If each of those 88,000 customers were to stay with the company and pay $1.95 per month for their email, SaskTel would bring in at least $2 million per year.
For those customers who don’t want to pay the fee for email, SaskTel has a step-by-step guide on its website on how to switch to a new, free provider.
Regina-based Access Communications has said it won’t be following SaskTel’s lead. 980 CJME asked Shaw for comment, but didn’t hear back by the time of publication.