Founded in 1969, the Canadian company Telesat aims to create its own satellite constellation in low Earth orbit to provide high-speed global broadband communications from space, similar to SpaceX Starlink, OneWeb or a similar Amazon Kuiper Systems initiative.

Telesat satellite operator in office (Reuters | Blair Gable)

Despite the intense competition expected, Telesat CEO Dan Goldberg is confident and calls the future Telesat group the “Holy Grail” for his company’s shareholders – a viable competitor in the broadband market.

The Telesat project has a much lower cost compared to the initiatives of SpaceX and Amazon, and the company has been in the satellite communications market for a decade, thanks to which it has accumulated a wealth of experience. Plus, instead of going into the consumer market like SpaceX or Amazon, Telesat is looking for wealthy corporate clients.

Telesat CEO Dan Goldberg (Reuters | Blair Gable)

Mr. Goldberg said he literally started to sleep badly when he realized his company’s business model was in jeopardy six years ago: streaming services like Netflix, which require high connection speeds, are widespread, and fiber-optic connections ensure lightning-fast Internet connections.

Telesat’s 15 geostationary satellites provide services primarily to television broadcasters, Internet service providers and government networks, which are increasingly concerned about delays or disruptions in signal transmission from orbits more than 35 kilometers above the Earth. Then in 000, returning home from a Paris industry conference where delays were a key topic of discussion, he sketched his initial ideas on a napkin on an airplane on a napkin for a constellation in low Earth orbit.

The first ideas of the Telesat low-orbit constellation (Reuters | Blair Gable)

These ideas eventually led to a project called Lightspeed – it involves the creation of a constellation of satellites that will rotate at an altitude of about 35 times lower than the company’s modern devices. At the same time, the system will provide an Internet connection at a speed close to that of fiber optics.

Telesat signed a launch contract with aerospace company Blue Origin in 2019. According to David Wendling, chief technical officer of Telesat, negotiations are underway with three more potential parties: Japanese Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, European ArianeGroup and SpaceX. The final decision will be made within a few months.

Telesat satellite operator in office (Reuters | Blair Gable)

Telesat plans to launch the first batch of 298 satellites built by Thales Alenia Space in early 2023 – this will allow it to start partial subscriber service at some latitudes in the same year. Full global coverage is slated for 2024. The Lightspeed grouping, according to the company, will cost half the price of SpaceX or Amazon projects (worth about $ 10 billion each), which will ensure competitiveness.

Telesat satellite operator in office (Reuters | Blair Gable)