Ontario says the largest space program ever undertaken in Canada will see some of its expansion in Grey Bruce.
Like Elon Musk’s Starlink satellites that transmit fast internet signals to Earth— Telesat’s Lightspeed Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite network will do the same.
It’s a $6.5 billion project being built by Telesat, which has a landing station at its Allan Park location in West Grey, east of Hanover.
Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound MPP Bill Walker says the Ontario Government has kicked in $109 million to bring that fast internet to local internet service providers who can then provide affordable, high-speed internet to consumers. The $109 million pays for 40 gigabits of broadband capacity on Telesat Lightspeed for local service providers to use for five years.
Telesat President and CEO Dan Goldberg says in a statement, “This partnership with the Government of Ontario will not only achieve the province’s goal of connecting everyone, regardless of where they live, to affordable high-speed Internet, but also positions Ontario at the forefront of the highly strategic New Space Economy through Telesat’s local investments in jobs and technology innovations.”
Part of this massive project includes building a 20 million dollar gateway landing station at Allan Park as well as expanding the company’s operations in Ottawa. MPP Walker notes, Telesat has had a location at Allan Park for decades, adding, “They have a multitude of satellites and they do business all around the world.”
Walker says this kind of connectivity could be used for hard-to-reach places for which, fibre optic cable installation could still be decades away from being installed.
The satellite internet service is expected to be up and running in the first half of 2024.
The Province says this builds on its existing initiatives to expand high-speed internet in communities across Ontario.
It says back in March it announced a $4 billion commitment to connect every region to high-speed internet by the end of 2025.
The Province says that’s the largest single investment in high-speed internet, in any province, by any government in Canadian history.
Meanwhile, on July 29th, a joint provincial and federal investment was announced, of up to $1.2 billion in 58 new projects to bring high-speed internet to up to 280,000 rural households.