It’s an example of smaller space firms banding together in the face of the push by Elon Musk’s Starlink to get deeper into wireless services.
Montreal’s Terrestar, which is backed by alternative asset manager Fortress Investment Group, will work on open interoperability standards with Equatys, a joint venture that Viasat and Space42 launched last month.
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A memorandum of understanding between the companies was signed in Ottawa this week on the sidelines of Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed Al Nahyan’s visit to Ottawa, where he met with Prime Minister Mark Carney.
The framework allows each operator to “retain full ownership and control” of their respective assets, according to a statement. “This approach is designed to enable global scale while preserving national sovereignty over critical communications infrastructure.”
Officials in Europe have intensified discussions about ways to reduce their reliance on the US following the recent incident around Ukraine’s Starlink restrictions, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg News this week.
Meanwhile, US threats against Canadian sovereignty have prompted Carney’s government to review the vulnerabilities in the country’s telecommunications network. Carney told the New York Times last month the country will diversify away from Starlink. Today, though, its service is popular with users in Canada’s remote regions.
Separately, he Canadian government has committed billions in contracts and loans to Ottawa-based Telesat Corp., which is planning a low-Earth orbit constellation of its own.
Efficient Systems
Terrestar has rights to Canadian capacity on a geostationary satellite owned by Echostar Corp. It works with mobile network operators to try and eliminate no-service areas across Canada’s vast remote regions.
Terrestar plans a low-Earth orbit satellite system called CaStar to expand coverage in rural and remote communities, with an initial phase expected to cost at least C$500 million ($356 million). But it won’t do it solo.
In September, Abu Dhabi-based Space42 and Carlsbad, California-based Viasat agreed to co-found Equatys, committing as much as $1 billion in equity, to build infrastructure for direct-to-device and mobile-satellite services, aiming for deployment of a first system by the end of 2029.
“It appeared obvious that building a LEO constellation on our own is not something that could be sustainable and viable,” Terrestar Chief Executive Officer Jacques Leduc said in an interview, as a high density of satellites racing around the Earth is critical to make the system work.
Space42 Managing Director Karim Michel Sabbagh explained that Equatys seeks to build a shared infrastructure in space with operators that share a common standard and spectrum band.
“We want to be able to appeal to all mobile users in the future who happen to go in and out non-covered areas as they travel between one place and the other,” he said.
Starlink is working toward creating a standalone wireless carrier in the US. Sabbagh said Equatys is pursuing this direct-to-device market “with the conviction that we have a far more efficient and performing system.”