A $2.14-billion federal loan for an Ottawa-based satellite operator has Canadian politicians arguing about whether American billionaire Elon Musk poses a national security risk.
The fight involves internet connectivity in remote regions as Canada tries to live up to its promise to connect every Canadian household to high-speed internet by 2030.
A week ago, the Liberal government announced the loan to Telesat, which is launching a constellation of low Earth orbit satellites that will be able to connect the most remote areas of the country to broadband internet.
Conservative MP Michael Barrett objected to the price tag, asking Musk in a social media post how much it would cost to provide his Starlink to every Canadian household that does not have high-speed access.
I live within 20 kilometers of a major city. My options for high-speed were 5/1 DSL for $75 or Starlink, with the costs you described. I suppose 5 megabits would be enough if I limited myself to non-streaming services or only one person using those services at a time, but anyone who thinks that was a reasonable alternative in 2023 probably isn’t participating in the modern technological world, either.
Probably other options but yah Starlink was still probably the best.
There were almost literally no other options. Cable ended service one mile away. Third-party cellular stations were blocked by terrain and would require a 30’ mast (quotes were about $2k for the mast install), Bell wasn’t offering cellular service at the time (and I don’t know if they do now), geo satellite has the worst latency you can get, and caps that make it almost worthless. The only options with less than $1k upfront costs and sub-second latencies were DSL and Starlink. Trust me, I wouldn’t have sat on the Starlink waiting list for 9 months if there was a better option.