TORONTO – When a severe tropical cyclone hit New Zealand in February 2023, thousands of people in the North Island were left without internet or cell phone service for nearly a week as major roads carrying vital fiber-optic cables were washed away.
Of those residents who managed to maintain an internet connection during Cyclone Gabrielle, many relied on a lifeline that didn’t even exist a few years earlier: SpaceX’s satellite internet service known as Starlink.
The company, which provides internet services through a constellation of thousands of satellites orbiting the Earth, has seen significant uptake in New Zealand since launching there in 2021 – especially among rural communities – helping users stay connected after the storm.
Bronwyn Howell, a telecommunications policy researcher at New Zealand’s Victoria University of Wellington, said 14 percent of rural households in New Zealand are connected to a satellite, powered almost exclusively by Starlink.
“Satellite is the gift that keeps on giving,” Howell said.
“The game is changing.”
The technology also appears to be ready for launch in Canada.
As the future of satellite connectivity continues to take shape, industry observers say its growth could have significant implications for solving resiliency issues, improving connectivity in rural and remote communities, and increasing competition in Canada’s telecom sector.
Academics, industry executives and regulatory officials gathered in Toronto on October 16 for a conference hosted by the Ivey Business School, which delved into the role satellite technology can play in Canadian telecommunications.
“Satellite is not a niche technology. It’s not just the technology that fills in some of the hard-to-reach parts, it’s a technology that cuts across the entire telecom agenda,” CRTC Vice Chairman Adam Scott said at the conference.
“The better satellite technology becomes, the more attractive an option it can be for customers. Maybe not for everyone, but for some, including some who aren’t used to much competition or choice at all.”
Howell said the introduction of satellites in New Zealand “marks the end of the natural monopoly” for connectivity in rural communities.
“Now many rural areas are actually better competitive than some peri-urban and suburban areas because they have a real and viable choice of satellite services that work,” she said.
“The strategic options are now much broader.”
In June, the federal government launched a consultation on expanding wireless services through satellite technology, with Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne calling it “the next frontier where Canadians will be able to use their current phone… to have absolute connectivity.”
Champagne also said in an interview at the time that as the number of natural disasters increases, satellite connections could serve as a backup if traditional networks fail due to power outages.
The government’s investigation will conclude this month, with new regulatory rules expected to be announced in the coming months and put into effect by April 2025, said Andre Arbour, director general of telecommunications and internet policy at Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada.
“It can be invaluable, and perhaps the only option in the aftermath of a natural disaster, when traditional infrastructure has been damaged and is being repaired,” he said.
In the meantime, some Canadian airlines are already working on the development.
Rogers Communications Inc. announced partnerships last year with SpaceX and Lynk Global to deliver satellite-to-phone connectivity across Canada. Last December, Rogers said it had achieved a major milestone by completing a test call using Lynk’s low-Earth orbit satellites and its own wireless spectrum.
Telus Corp. also said it successfully piloted the technology in partnership with Montreal-based telecom provider TerreStar Solutions Inc. in late 2023. and non-terrestrial network service provider Skylo.
Last month, Ottawa announced a $2.14 billion loan to satellite operator Telesat to help that company build its broadband satellite constellation, called Lightspeed. The government said Lightspeed would give people in the most remote parts of the country, including indigenous communities, mines and forestry companies, access to cheaper and more reliable internet.
The first of the initial 198 satellites is expected to be launched in 2026.
Michèle Beck, Telesat’s senior vice-president of Canadian sales, said the technology “creates a level of resiliency that we have never seen before.”
“It can be used anywhere in Canada as long as you have an antenna to land in. It is replaceable,” she said.
“You can configure it where you need it at a given time. It’s an insurance policy that then allows you to provide that continuity where you need it.”
She highlighted another advantage of the technology when it comes to preventing mass failures: individual satellites are spread out across a constellation.
“You don’t have a big target in the sky,” Beck said.
“You have many, many satellites creating this network and if one or two are disabled or blocked, you have hundreds more to complete the connections.”
In Northern Canada, where some remote communities have a history of connectivity challenges such as slow or unreliable speeds, high prices and data caps, many have pointed to satellites as a possible solution, says Rob McMahon, associate professor of media and technology at the university. of Alberta.
Speaking at the Ivey Conference, McMahon shared customer experience research from two communities in the Northwest Territories, which showed that Starlink users reported fewer problems than customers of other broadband services.
But McMahon noted limitations to the technology. Starlink in particular currently has a limited customer base — it became available in Canada in 2021 — and may see a decline in speed or quality of service as adoption grows, he said.
Consumer costs are also still relatively high: the company charges $140 per month for service and $499 for hardware in Canada.
“Reliability is somewhat unclear. There are no local technicians to provide support if, for example, service goes down,” McMahon said.
Arbor-added satellite should not be viewed as a complete replacement for 4G or 5G communications. He said the department has received complaints about “dead zones” where satellite internet doesn’t seem to be working, even in centralized locations.
“It’s not in the middle of Hudson Bay,” he said. “It’s actually not that far from the (Greater Toronto Area).”
Howell said these concerns reflect lessons learned from New Zealand’s experiences with satellite so far.
She said governments and regulators should not abandon their focus on improving the service of traditional broadband networks to get satellite off the ground.
“Very different options will be created for a handful of consumers on the geographical periphery of society, but that doesn’t take away from the importance of all the other things we’ve all been working on over the last few years. years,” she said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 27, 2024.
