Article content continued

“Projects that on our own would be completely uneconomic, we’re able to do in partnership,” he said. “It’s sort of that old co-op idea — you have to work together.”

He credited these factors for SaskTel’s low prices, which are tied with Manitoba for the lowest mobile prices in Canada. Bell MTS promised not to increase prices for a year after the acquisition.

“My guess is we’ll be lowest within a year or so,” Styles said, even though its coverage in rural Saskatchewan is “second to nobody.”

“That doesn’t help us financially, that’s obvious, but it’s great for the people of the province.”

He also pointed to SaskTel’s tendency to look for alternative approaches to keep costs down. For example, it put up equipment on wooden power poles when it rolled out its LTE network in order to do it faster. It was also the first in Canada to deploy LTE TDD technology, which works well to send signals across the prairies.

As Styles wraps up this chapter of his career — he plans to do consulting after a few months of travel — he said he’s most proud of SaskTel’s fibre optic deployment.

“It’s a necessity for people in their personal life, it’s a necessity for economic development and the growth of businesses,” he said.

In the next decade, he believes fibre will be the backbone for all communications and copper lines will be obsolete.

“Given the amount of data people want to move, fibre optics is the only way to do it… we’re heading for a fibre optics world completely.”

As for SaskTel’s ownership structure, he expects it will morph in the next seven years. He can’t say for certain whether it will remain a traditional Crown corporation, but he thinks it will still be owned by the province.

“The government is obviously interested in seeing the corporation look at new directions, and I think it’s probably a good idea there be somebody else in place to do that,” Styles said.

“The bottom line is, it has to be a net benefit to Saskatchewan.”

ejackson@postmedia.com