Canada’s telecommunications regulator has approved an application by a company owned by U.S. tech billionaire Elon Musk to provide satellite internet service to Canadians living in rural and remote areas.
Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) owned by Musk plans to use its network of thousands of low-orbiting satellites to provide internet service to rural and remote areas around the world.
SpaceX had applied to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission for a Basic International Telecommunications Services (BITS) licence on May 15.
In a letter sent to SpaceX’s chief financial officer, Bret Johnson, on Oct. 15, the CRTC’s Secretary General, Claude Doucet, said the federal regulator had received 2,585 interventions regarding the company’s BITS licence application.
“After consideration of the comments received, the Commission has approved the application and a BITS licence is enclosed,” Doucet wrote.
The vast majority of the interveners were individual Canadians living in rural areas of the country who support the application.
However, Doucet noted that the licence approval is just the first step in the application process that would require SpaceX to comply with a number of regulatory requirements.
Starlink constellation
On Sunday, SpaceX delivered into orbit the latest batch of its 60 Starlink communication satellites.
The company has been using its Falcon 9 reusable rocket to create a vast network of Starlink satellites flying in low orbits at an altitude of about 550 kilometres, as opposed to other communications satellites that orbit the planet at an altitude of 20,000 kilometres.
SpaceX already has nearly 900 satellites in orbit and plans to have as many as 12,000.
It is not clear how soon Canadians will be able to access Starlink’s service.
Deployment of 60 Starlink satellites confirmed pic.twitter.com/x83OvjB4Pa
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) October 6, 2020
Musk has tweeted that once these satellites reach their position, SpaceX will be able to roll out a “fairly wide public beta in northern U.S. & hopefully southern Canada.”
SpaceX has confirmed that its Starlink internet service beta tests have shown download speeds over 100Mbps.
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