Feds bet on LEO satellites to boost rural internet

Satellite internet doesn’t have the best reputation in rural and Northern Canada, where many consumers report choppy, lagging connections via geostationary satellites orbiting 36,000 kilometres above the earth on the equatorial belt.

But the federal government’s 2018 budget pledged $100 million over five years to help improve satellite connections by investing in projects using low earth orbit (LEO) satellites — smaller birds travelling in constellations about 500 to 600 kilometres above ground that are expected to deliver low latency, high throughput connections.

Industry players say the federal government’s plan to invest in LEO satellites through the Strategic Innovation Fund investment is a positive, albeit small, step to improve internet connections in rural and remote communities. It’s also a vote of confidence in a technology that’s just starting to lift off.

“We were pleased to see the recognition in the budget document that LEO can be an answer to solving rural broadband problems,” Telesat Canada CEO Daniel Goldberg said in an interview. “This is a smart bet, I think, by the government.”

Telesat is developing a global LEO constellation that aims to have 120 satellites in orbit by 2021. The multi-billion-dollar project will “cover every last point coast-to-coast-to-coast in Canada,” Goldberg said. It expects it will sell wholesale access to its LEO satellites, much like it does for its existing operations that serve Bell and Shaw customers.

Telesat has one LEO satellite in orbit and will test its service with customers in the coming months. The technology is expected to improve service enough to compete with fibre and microwave internet connections, Goldberg said.

“It really can be transformative in terms of solving the rural broadband conundrum,” he said.

Goldberg is pleased the government is paying attention to the space industry, which he said has been “starved” for funding to the point that companies such as MDA and Com Dev have moved to other jurisdictions. That said, the amount of cash is “not really enough to move the needle in a very significant way ” given the cost of launching satellites.

But Mina Mitry, CEO of upstart satellite company Kepler Communications, believes the funding could have a “meaningful impact” on deployment of service in the North, depending on how it’s distributed. Kepler’s technology “meaningfully reduces” the cost of launching and operating LEO satellites since its devices are miniaturized to about the size of a loaf of bread, Mitry said. It successfully launched its first LEO satellite in January and plans to deploy service to oil and gas, mining and maritime customers.

The funding is a “positive step forward” to improve connectivity in remote areas to levels enjoyed in the south, he said.