Spacex applies for telecom licence in Canada
The rocket and spacecraft-building company founded by Tesla Inc. chief executive Elon Musk has applied for a telecom licence in Canada, according to a regulatory filing.
Space Exploration Technologies Corp. is seeking a Basic International Telecommunications Services (BITS) licence, which would authorize the firm to carry telecommunications traffic between Canada and another country, according to the website of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.
The move could potentially help the company with its plans to bring high-speed internet to remote parts of the country. Spacex has launched several “Starlink” missions, which are intended to use satellites to deliver high-speed broadband internet to places that may not currently have such service available, accessible and affordable to them.
The Starlink program’s website also says it is “targeting service in the Northern U.S. and Canada in 2020, rapidly expanding to near global coverage of the populated world by 2021.”
Hawthorne, Calif.-based Spacex’s application has garnered supportive submissions to the regulator. One such message was from Kenneth Flack, a municipal councillor for Pointe-fortune, Que., who wrote that the absence of highspeed internet “severely limits the community to participate fully as a connected member of society,” including for businesses, children and seniors who may be isolated during the pandemic. “I encourage the CRTC to accelerate the acceptance of this application for provisioning of services such as this without delay, as it will also provide the capability for our communities to deal with and recover from this pandemic,” Flack wrote. “The Space X — Starlink Internet Services project as a whole, specifically benefits those most in need ...”