SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service launched in Canada back in 2020, and now boasts over 400,000 active Canadian customers, making it the second largest market for the service outside of the United States, reports Tesla North.
“Starlink is now providing high-speed internet to more than 400k active Canadian customers, connecting ~3% of homes across the country!” said the official Starlink account on X on Wednesday. Many Canadian customers replied to Starlink on X, particularly those in rural areas, thanking the company for its service.
Serving 3% of Canadian homes represents a significant achievement for Starlink, providing an alternative to established telecom companies such as Rogers, Telus, and Bell.
Heck, Starlink’s rapid rate of improvement has allowed the service to be included in Opensignal fixed broadband experience reports, with the video experience nearly catching up to the Big 3.
In June, SpaceX introduced discounts in select provinces through its regional savings program, reducing hardware costs by $300 CAD to $199 CAD (it was as high as $649 at one point). Monthly service costs for Starlink remain at $140 per month.
The latest Starlink Mini dish has yet to be launched in Canada, although it recently debuted in the U.S. Currently, there are approximately 6,000 Starlink satellites in low-Earth orbit, with no other company matching SpaceX and Starlink’s pace of satellite internet growth.
Starlink has allowed rural Canadians to access high-speed internet independently, bypassing traditional telecom providers known for slow speeds and high prices, along with super slow expansion.
While the Canadian government continues to invest billions to connect all residents with high-speed internet by laying down fibre lines, Starlink offers a direct solution by allowing users to purchase a dish online. Setting up Starlink is easy as you just plug in the satellite dish and point it at the open sky. The feds did invest $1 million to use Starlink for over 1,100 rural homes in Manitoba back in 2022.
Rogers has also partnered with SpaceX for its Direct to Cell network in Canada, further integrating Starlink’s capabilities into the Canadian telecom landscape.
Are you a Starlink subscriber? Whereabouts are you located?
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Canada has a population of 36 million. 400,000 customers represents 1.1% of the market.
Just wondering: could that be equivalent to 3% of Canadian homes?
Perhaps some of the Canadian customers have multiple subscriptions due to vacation residences outside the country?
I would think it is global access.
Households, not people.
They said people, not households.
I have one internet account in my name. There are five people in my household and everyone uses it. Does this make it an individual account or a household account? Unless there is a some unique need, most households have only one account. Maybe the terminology could have been better but it wouldn't change the outcome….
It’s fair to assume it’s 400,000 households not single Canadians. There are approximately 16 million households, so that would be 2.5%. BTW, Canada’s population just recently crossed 40 million mark
They compare 400k customers to households. This is not the same thing and therefore is not fair.
Either it’s 400k households out of a pool of 16 million households or it’s 400k customers out of 40 million customers.
Either way, it isn’t 400k customers out of 16 million households, which is the language they are using.
I had Starlink and it was great. Much better than Xplornet by far. My issue was monthly cost. Rogers 5G Internet came my way as an affordable option, and I switched. It works well, although the 3Mb/s streaming limit is a bummer. I would go back to Starlink if they dropped their price to an affordable level though. It was the best service I’ve ever had.