Internet and mobile phone services are growing at a “brisk” rate in Canada, and major telecom and satellite players want to see them grow even faster. Count among them Elon Musk and Doug Ford.

Canada’s overall network media industry – telecommunications, Internet, digital media, broadcasting, publishing, online gaming and streaming – generated revenues exceeding $108 billion last year, up more than five percent from the previous year, and up 17 per cent since 2019! Of that total, telecoms and ISPs accounted for $69 billion, according to a new report from the Global Media & Internet Concentration Project (GMIC Project).

The main telecom and ISP companies serve most Canadians in major cities and urban areas. But broadband and online services in northern and rural regions still lags most of the country – and in Ontario, Elon Musk and Doug Ford both want to stake their claims and deliver faster broadband and telecom services.

Musk, of course, is CEO of Space X, and its subsidiary, Starlink, which provides high-speed Internet services to a global market via its own constellation of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites. Just recently, Starlink announced it would begin testing of direct-to-cell mobile phone service, as well. Starlink launched its first 60 satellites in 2019; there are now 6,912 Starlink satellites in orbit, of which 6,874 are working.

Starlink has for some time offered its services in Canada, and the GMIC report notes that Starlink has over 400,000 subscribers here, mostly in the North, providing revenues estimated at $420 million.

“It is now the sixth largest ISP in Canada,” the report says. “It is also set to grow much bigger…”

And that’s where Doug Ford comes in.

His ONSAT (Ontario Satellite) program is set to grow as well, and it’s designed to ensure every community in Ontario has access to high-speed internet by the end of this year.

So his provincial Progressive Conservative government has pledged some $100 million to fund satellite equipment and assured capacity for Ontarians. The deal will get Starlink access for 15,000 underserved homes and businesses in rural and remote communities. The province is paying for installation and equipment fees; residents and subscribers (many eligible households are in Indigenous communities) will pay their own monthly fee to Starlink for high-speed broadband service, the government explained.

(Interestingly, more than two years ago, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission stopped $886 million in funding to SpaceX, money that would have subsidized Starlink services in rural areas across that country. The agency said the high cost of a Starlink dish, $599 at the time, triggered its decision. But with a new administration in place, the agency may well reconsider.)

A standard Starlink terminal-slash-receiving dish costs about $500 in Canada; monthly Internet fees start around $140.

The Ontario government describes selecting SpaceX’s Starlink following a competitive bid process; the province requested proposals from Starlink and Xplore Inc., a Canadian company (now owned by U.S.-based investment firm Stonepeak Partners). Musk’s Starlink has already captured some business from Xplore, which uses satellite (the Hughes’ Jupiter 3 version) and landline technologies to provide Internet services in remote and rural Canadian communities, and it has made recent announcements about further funding for continued expansion of its fibre network to underserved communities in Canada.

Meanwhile, Canadian satellite operator Telesat, headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario, is planning to roll out its own high-speed broadband services in underserved Canadian communities.

Called Lightspeed, the new broadband and 5G service is slated to launch next year. Telesat says it will use satellites manufactured in Canada for the service, tapping into Brampton, ON-based MDA Space Ltd. to construct its own constellation of LEO satellites. An initial order has been placed for 198 new digital satellites, on which preliminary functional and performance testing has now been completed. They are expected to be launched starting in 2026.

It was late last year that the federal Liberal government announced a $2 billion-plus loan to Telesat to support its project, and it wasn’t long before Musk caught wind of the idea.

At the time, he responded that Starlink could do the deal for half that amount, but he perhaps did not realize that the money was a loan, a loan with interest, and that in repaying that loan, Telesat would give up a percentage of ownership. (Ironically, although Telesat has used other launch services in the past, it is also working with SpaceX.)

So with government support – not Musk’s – that project is proceeding on pace and with energy. Telesat has recently hired a Chief Network and Information Officer, responsible for the terrestrial elements of the Lightspeed network, and there’s a new Chief Technology Officer as well, with a history and focus on satellite system architecture and performance.

Yet, with the pace of change now underway in the U.S. as a result of the new administration priorities there, and with possibly landscape-changing elections coming in Canada (federally for the whole country, and perhaps provincially for Ontarians), it is not clear what impacts the electorate’s decisions may have on previously announced plans (spokespersons for the Ontario government did not reply to questions in time for this posting) and funding to grow Canada’s high-speed broadband and mobile capabilities.

So, stay tuned, as they say.

If you have good phone, TV or Internet service, that is.

 

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