Prime Minister Mark Carney says Arctic sovereignty and affordability are top of mind as he attends an Inuit-Crown partnership meeting in Quebec. <\/p>\n
OTTAWA \u2014 A Canadian telecommunications firm has signed a deal with the federal government worth $2.3 billion to provide high-speed satellite communications to the Canadian Armed Forces in the Arctic.<\/p>\n
The federal Defence Investment Agency and Telesat LEO announced the deal on Monday. The contract is meant to secure broadband coverage in remote northern locations for a range of Canadian military activities, including Norad.<\/p>\n
This is the largest contract ever for the Ottawa-based Telesat, which has been in operation for about 60 years. It\u2019s expected to give the company\u2019s network growth plans a major boost.<\/p>\n
Telesat CEO Dan Goldberg said the contract will allow his firm to increase the size of its planned low-Earth orbit satellite network by about 44 per cent by adding another 69 satellites.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re massively expanding the size of the constellation, which just makes it more competitive, higher performing, more resilient — just a much more powerful network,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The company wants to quickly establish the broadband satellite service — which is to be used for both civilian and military purposes — and to eventually compete with the Starlink service run by Elon Musk\u2019s SpaceX.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone around the world, including even the U.S. government, is very much wanting more competition for these very strategic services,\u201d Goldberg said.<\/p>\n
Telesat currently has one satellite prototype in orbit for extensive testing but says it plans to begin launching new low-Earth orbit network satellites next year.<\/p>\n
Service through the federal government contract is set to start in early 2028. The firm\u2019s federal contract also comes with two five-year option periods that could increase the contract\u2019s value to $2.7 billion and extend it to 15 years.<\/p>\n
The federal government can use the network for fighter jets, drones, ships, icebreakers and forward-operating bases in remote locations, according to Telesat.<\/p>\n
The federal government has said the Canadian military currently has few options for satellite communications in the Arctic.<\/p>\n
This is one of the first major military contracts to be handled by Ottawa\u2019s new Defence Investment Agency.<\/p>\n
The procurement project is not new and appeared to languish for years. Telesat first replied to a request for information on it back in 2008.<\/p>\n
The project has advanced rapidly under Prime Minister Mark Carney\u2019s government, which has vowed to meet steep NATO defence spending commitments and accelerate military procurement.<\/p>\n
This announcement comes just eight months after Ottawa signed a strategic partnership in December 2025 with Telesat and Canadian satellite manufacturer MDA Space.<\/p>\n
Carney\u2019s office had hinted the multi-billion dollar contract was coming during the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey last month.<\/p>\n
As part of a package of defence spending measures Ottawa presented to NATO allies, the PMO announced on July 8 the government had reached an \u201cagreement-in-principle\u201d with Telesat to use the network for \u201csovereign, reliable and continuous military satellite communications in the Arctic.\u201d<\/p>\n
Goldberg said it\u2019s \u201call happening right here in Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re a Canadian company. MDA is a Canadian company. All the R&D for this very advanced network, developed right here in Canada,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ll be operating this new constellation from a brand new, high-tech facility we\u2019re building in Gatineau, Que., that will have a few hundred people operating it.\u201d<\/p>\n
MDA Space announced Monday it won a $474 million contract to supply the additional satellites to Telesat, which will be made in Montreal.<\/p>\n
Telesat will provide the dedicated military satellite connectivity on the Ka-frequency band from 65 to 90 degrees North latitude, starting just south of the Arctic Circle and reaching up to the North Pole.<\/p>\n
The company isn\u2019t sharing exactly how much communications capacity the government will get, but said it will be substantial.<\/p>\n
Telesat will also look to sell its satellite capabilities to other governments around the world and to commercial customers such as mobile networks, cruise ship operators and commercial airlines.<\/p>\n
Canadian Press Staff, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prime Minister Mark Carney says Arctic sovereignty and affordability are top of mind as he attends an Inuit-Crown…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155793,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[525,6885,2183,3925,4642,4122,290,61,113],"class_list":["post-155792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ottawa","tag-business","tag-defence","tag-hardware","tag-human-interest","tag-manufacturing","tag-media","tag-national","tag-ottawa","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155792"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155792\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}