As of April of this year, if you have a SaskTel email, it will no longer be free. Each sasktel.net email connected to your account will cost $1.95 a month. After an interview was requested by the Saskatoon Media Group newsroom, a written statement was sent which says SaskTel put a stop sell on new sasktel.net email accounts a year ago. Previously those who subscribed to the Crown Corporation’s email service were provided sasktel.net addresses for free. Why the change is happening wasn’t answered. SaskTel is sending emails to all impacted customers, but due to the volume, they are being sent out over a period of several weeks.
Unlike SaskPower and SaskEnergy, there is no rate review panel process when there is an increase.

SaskTel explains that the company is regulated by the CRTC and operates in a competitive environment in all lines of business, and periodically adjusts rates based on market conditions. Customers who want to unsubscribe to the email service, can contact SaskTel. There is also information on their website to help customers who want to transition to a new platform if they choose to do so. The statement adds that although they have stopped adding new email addresses, there are no plans to discontinue the sasktel.net service.

In response to a question about whether there are issues with the security of its customers, the statement says, “We continue to see a high level of scams and phishing attempts target our email platform. While we do have spam filters in place it does not stop all attempts. Also, unlike email providers which are world-wide our sasktel.net email extensions are more susceptible to phishing scams as bad actors can create more effective spam campaigns (overdue bills, change in service terms, personal information updates, etc.) because they will know that the email holder is likely a customer of SaskTel, SaskPower, SGI, etc.”

As well, in the coming months, SaskTel is increasing the cost on some of its internet packages by five dollars a month.