Rancher and painter Megan Weir lives in what many people would describe as the middle of nowhere: the southeast corner of Alberta, just north of the border with Montana.
For Weir, who is a rural business owner, the ability to access high-speed internet at home is essential.
“The only way that we are able to use the internet is through Starlink,” she said, referring to the satellite internet service run by inventor and entrepreneur Elon Musk.
“We have no cell service,” Weir told Canadian Affairs in an internet-enabled call.
Weir uses Starlink to showcase her art online and connect with buyers. “My business is mostly online … I’m constantly emailing and contacting people from other countries or other places.”
Weir is far from being alone in relying on Starlink. The service, which has only been available to the Canadian public since January 2021, has about 400,000 active subscribers, the company reported in July. This means it connects roughly three per cent of Canadian households.
So some are questioning the federal government’s recent decision to lend $2.14 billion to Telesat Corporation. The loan, announced Sept. 13, aims to enable the Ottawa-based company to purchase and launch a constellation of satellites to improve internet access across the country. The satellites will be built in Quebec by MDA Ltd. and, ironically, launched by SpaceX, the owner of Starlink.
“Hey @elonmusk – how much would it cost to provide @Starlink to every Canadian household that doesn’t have high speed?” Conservative MP Michael Barrett asked the Starlink founder in a Sept. 14 X post that has since received more than 30-million direct impressions.
“If this $2.14 BILLION plan is the panacea of expanding access, competition, and service – where is the interest from private investors and banks?”
Private investors appear to be few and far between. In a November 2023 press release, the credit rating agency S&P Global described Telesat’s existing capital structure as “unsustainable because the company has a substantial debt burden.” The public company is currently rated CCC+, one level above default.
‘Only option’
Getting set up on Starlink requires the one-time purchase of receiver hardware, a frisbee-sized antenna and modem, and payment of a monthly subscription plan. In Canada, the hardware lists for $500, and a plan with unlimited data costs $140 a month.
Yuri Podmoroff, a resident of Iqaluit and Starlink subscriber, says he has found Starlink to be far faster than other internet service providers, such as Northwestel, Qinic and Xplornet.
“Starlink has way better speeds and lower latency,” he said. “Speeds can vary, but typical download speeds are in the range of 50-150 Mbps, with much lower latency, making activities like video conferencing and online gaming possible.”
Andréa Daigle, a spokesperson for the federal Ministry of Innovation, Science and Economic Development, acknowledged that Starlink may be the “best solution” for Canadians living in certain remote areas. But she says Telesat’s network, known as Lightspeed, will address a different need.
“Lightspeed will sell wholesale capacity to local Internet Service Providers and mobile operators, who, in turn, will deliver last-mile connectivity to households, businesses, public institutions, and Canadians in rural and remote communities,” Daigle told Canadian Affairs in an emailed statement.
“For communities with local distribution networks already in place, Telesat Lightspeed may be the best solution.”
Telesat says it plans to launch the first Lightspeed satellites in mid-2026.
Scaling up
Musk responded to Barrett’s viral tweet, saying he could provide Starlink to every Canadian household that is currently without high-speed internet access for “less than half” of the $2.14 billion being lent to Telesat.
“That sounds like a common-sense solution for Canada to me,” Barrett replied.
But Alberta Minister of Technology and Innovation Nate Glubish, who is tasked with developing the province’s internet connectivity, suggests that an all-in investment in Starlink may not be the common-sense solution Musk and Barrett suggest it is — at least for now.
“[The company] made it very clear to Alberta that if we wanted to do large-scale implementation, they would need to launch a lot more satellites, and they would want us to pay for that.
“And the cost per household to get Starlink to all of the rural households would actually have been more than what our alternative options have been,” said Glubish, who declined to provide specific estimates.
Glubish, who regards Starlink as a “great tool” with “a lot of potential,” also raised concerns about service degradation where a high volume of users are accessing the network within a relatively small geographic area, like a single province.
“The more customers they have on a given satellite, the more competition there is for them, and then speed changes, and the reliability changes.
“[I]f we wanted to take all tens of thousands of Albertans [still requiring rural internet access] and put them on Starlink today, those folks wouldn’t be as happy with the service as the smaller number of people who use it today are, because the quality of service would change.”
Planning talks
In November 2023, Glubish’s ministry launched a pilot program to assist rural residents lacking access to alternate internet service providers to acquire service through Starlink. The program, which ended March 2024, offered rebates of up to $1,000 per household, covering the costs of receiver hardware and other fees.
Glubish says that the province is open to revisiting Starlink subsidy initiatives if the numbers make sense. He acknowledged that Starlink’s proposed cost figures for providing province-wide service were provided in 2022 — when its network was considerably smaller.
“We are working on lining up a discussion of senior executives with the Starlink and SpaceX team to see if their position on an accelerated rollout of the technology across Alberta has changed,” Glubish said.
“And if the costs become more reasonable, I’m open to exploring other options. At the end of the day, my job is to make the best decision for Alberta taxpayers.”
Daigle, of the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Economic Development, says there are also national security and emergency preparedness arguments for developing Telesat.
“Built and operated in Canada, the Telesat Lightspeed network will provide a trusted solution to government, aeronautical, maritime and enterprise customers,” Daigle said, citing the Arctic as one area of particular strategic importance.
But for Podmoroff, in Iqaluit, the consumer arguments for favouring Starlink are clear.
He says he has seen Starlink’s consistency improve since he became a customer in December 2022.
“My wife was able to attend and finish her university classes,” he said. “The occasional outages and disruptions happen, but they are nowhere near as bad as the turbulence of the other options.”
Even without a Starlink subsidy program in Nunavut, Podmoroff is committed to using Starlink. The alternative providers “can’t really compare at all,” he says.
National security. I dont trsut Musk.
We cannot put Canada’s information infrastructure in the hands of Elon Musk. He already has cut service within Ukraine. All the data flowing through Starlink is being grabbed by foreign interests.