OTTAWA — Telesat and the government of Canada today announced they have completed their $600-million agreement signed in July 2019 that will see the federal government buy broadband capacity on Telesat’s low-Earth-orbit (LEO) satellite constellation, once it enters service, over a 10-year period.
The agreement will enable Internet and mobile service providers to acquire Telesat LEO capacity at “substantially reduced rates” to bring broadband connectivity to rural, northern and Indigenous communities across Canada, says Telesat’s press release.
“Telesat LEO will transform connectivity in Canada, and this agreement will bring affordable enterprise grade, high-speed connectivity to underserved Canadians no matter where they live and work,” said Dan Goldberg, Telesat’s president and CEO, in the press release. “We applaud the government of Canada and Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada for leveraging revolutionary technologies like Telesat LEO to drive widespread social and economic benefits. We look forward to working with Canadian service providers to provide this capacity to qualified communities across the country to get all Canadians connected as soon as possible.”
While the release did not say when Telesat’s LEO constellation will be ready to offer service (and right now it’s believed the company has only one in orbit and its needs dozens, at least, to offer service), the federal government expects it to be ready to connect rural Canadians rather soon. “These satellites will be deployed late next year,” Innovation, Science and Economic Development minister Navdeep Bains said in a press conference on Monday. That said, Telesat has not yet made any public announcements about LEO satellite construction plans.
Cartt.ca asked Telesat for comment on Minister Bains’ statement, but had not heard back by the end of the day Monday.
Under the terms of the agreement, a dedicated pool of Telesat LEO rural connectivity capacity will be available to service providers at greatly reduced rates on a first-come, first-served basis to provide connectivity for eligible communities, says the release. With Telesat LEO’s high-performance network capacity, service providers will be able to offer broadband services of at least 50/10 Mbps speeds with unlimited data, and mobility service providers will be able to offer LTE services.
More information for service providers can be found here.
Finalization of the Telesat LEO capacity agreement was confirmed by the federal government as part of today’s launch of the Universal Broadband Fund.
