Putting a Canadian trademark on the space race
‘Telecommunications is an enabler of productivity, it's an enabler of the way of life, it's an enabler of sovereignty, protection, defence. It becomes a very vital infrastructure,’ says André Tremblay, Executive Chairman of Terrestar. / SUBMITTED PHOTO
Canada’s sovereignty and economic future could depend on whether it can compete in the rapidly expanding global race to deliver satellite connectivity, says André Tremblay, Executive Chairman of Terrestar.
The telecommunications landscape is shifting from domestic competition to a far larger international battle dominated by global technology giants, Tremblay told Means & Ways. Companies such as SpaceX and Amazon, along with Chinese operators, are deploying thousands of low-Earth-orbit satellites capable of providing internet and mobile services worldwide and if Canada wants to compete and have sovereign capabilities, it must step up to build its own solutions, he said.
“If we are not successful in building a Canadian solution, we will leave the space to strangers to maneuver over our country, to basically dictate the products we're going to have, the price we're going to have,” he said. “It will impact on our way of life, our productivity, our sovereignty, our defence … and a lot of jobs in the country.”
He argued that telecommunications should be viewed not just as an industry, but as a key driver of security and economic growth. “Telecommunications is an enabler of productivity, it's an enabler of the way of life, it's an enabler of sovereignty, protection, defence. It becomes a very vital infrastructure.”
TerraStar, a Quebec company founded in 2008, describes itself as the only Canadian-controlled mobile satellite operator working to provide direct-to-device satellite communications for smartphones and Internet-of-Things devices. Last week, Terrestar announced it is building a low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellation “designed to safeguard Canada’s communications future.”
The technology could allow communication anywhere in Canada, including remote regions that currently lack coverage.
International partnerships
Tremblay explained, however, that because satellites constantly orbit the Earth, a national-only system faces a major challenge: most satellites spend much of their time outside Canadian territory. To address that challenge, Terrestar is pursuing partnerships with international operators while maintaining a Canadian-controlled system.
Tremblay said Terrestar is in the process of building a Canadian sovereign constellation. Under the model, satellite operators could share capacity across borders in a system similar to cellular roaming agreements.
In its press release announcing the initiative, Terrestar said: “This new space race requires resources and scale. To compete, Canada must develop global partnerships and build a Canadian-controlled LEO constellation embedded within a global architecture, allowing us to work with like-minded international partners and compete. Our objective is simple: to ensure that Canada is at the table in the emerging direct-to-device ecosystem, not merely a downstream consumer of foreign-owned infrastructure.”
The following Q&A was edited for length and clarity.
M&W: Your website says that at “Terrestar, we believe that access to communication is a fundamental right, not a luxury. And we're working hard to make it a reality.” What is the biggest challenge you're facing in terms of making this a reality?
AT: The challenge is the size of the competition and the fact that competition is international, rather than national. If you want to build a constellation today that would just cover Canada, you need an investment of more or less $3 billion for 150 satellites. Now, when you think that the satellites are moving around the world, only 5 to 10% of them will be over Canada at any time. So you may have coverage of the country but you will not have capacity to deliver what's required because you're going to have international competition with thousands of satellites on top of you. You cannot compete with 10, so you need to expand that. You need to expand it to probably 3,000 satellites. And now you're speaking billions and billions, tens of billions of dollars. It's impossible right now to create from Canada, 300 satellites, moving around the world. … So what you need is to find a way to create a Canadian sovereign constellation.
We are in fact, right now in a process of building a Canadian sovereign constellation with three friendly partners that are building an international constellation. We are working with compatible technology so our satellite works everywhere and their satellite works everywhere and then we can exchange traffic over Canada and over the rest of the world. That's the only way the economics will work.
M&W: Can you talk about your hybrid IoT service? Why is it unique?
AT: It's a solution that marries territorial and satellite technology into an IoT solution with a single subscription. Basically, you have an operation somewhere. You have sensors on some equipment. This equipment on our technology will be able to access the network.
On top of being standardized, it's open. We don't close our network. If somebody needs a network, it's open to them. So it is the same logic that we want to have in the LEO-constellation as well.
MW: How will it help rural Canadians or close gaps in dead zones? Why is this needed?
AT: If you think of Canada as a resource country, you understand that a lot of activity is happening outside of the cities — all the mining, all the forests, all the agriculture, energy. You have tons of activities that are in fact fueling the Canadian economy but that are outside of the reach of the territorial network, the way they are designed today. Now imagine IoT, what it does for forest fires, it can have a sensor on different types of equipment [to detect for] forest fires. Agriculture — you can evaluate the state of the dryness of the land. Transportation — knowing where the equipment is, where the trucks are moving, at which speed and what's happening with equipment in the field. If you want to work on productivity and so on and so forth, you need to understand data and with data, you get to solve most of the problems you have. So this is why these kinds of technologies are enablers.
M&W: What is keeping you up at night?
AT: Right now, it’s the project that is dear to my heart, this project to achieve Canadian sovereignty with the constellation and to make it viable and make it not only a business success but a social success as well. It's driving all my efforts.
M&W: What are you looking forward to? What are the opportunities you see in this sector for Canada?
AT: If you go back to Mr. Carney's speech, it's about defending ourselves, exercising sovereignty over what we can. Exercising sovereignty in my field is to enable mid-power organization. We need to work together and if we can do that, for sure we can compete, because it's not that it's impossible to do. It's just that it requires so much capital and so much innovation that you need a world of collaboration with friendly people. I think if we can do it, we are doing great. If we don't do it, it’s going to be difficult. You see what's happening in the retail industry. You see what's happening in the media industry and so many others. Do you want that to happen in the telecom industry? That's the fight we're having.
