Rogers has expanded its satellite-to-mobile texting service, giving Canadians access to coverage in areas that have never had reliable cell signals.
The service, powered by SpaceX’s Starlink satellites, now stretches across remote highways, national parks, and coastlines, with Rogers claiming three times more coverage than any other Canadian wireless provider.
The service allows customers to send text messages—including 911 texts—in places where traditional networks don’t reach. Examples include ferry routes between Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, fishing areas off Haida Gwaii, and crossings over James Bay.
Rogers launched the service in July as a free beta open to all Canadians. According to the company, early usage has been strong in major national parks like Yoho, Banff, Kananaskis, Algonquin, Mont Tremblant, and Fundy, as well as in extremely remote communities such as Telegraph Creek, B.C., Brochet, Manitoba, and North Twin Island, Nunavut.
“We’re proud to expand this ground-breaking technology to Canadians across the country including national parks, remote highways, and waterways,” said Mark Kennedy, Chief Technology Officer, Rogers, in a statement on Tuesday. “Since we launched Rogers Satellite, we’ve had a tremendous response from Canadians, and we can see the service is helping people stay connected in places they weren’t before.”
Looking at the Rogers network coverage map below, you can see how its satellite coverage (the light pink areas) thanks to Starlink now expands connectivity with texting in areas that normally had zero coverage:
Currently, Rogers Satellite supports text messaging and text-to-911. The company says it plans to expand the service to apps, data, and voice calling in the future, including full 911 voice support. Again, the Rogers press release makes no mention of SpaceX’s Starlink as its satellite texting provider.
When the beta ends in October, Rogers Satellite will be included at no extra cost for customers on the Rogers Ultimate Plan. After that, the service will cost $15 per month for both Rogers and non-Rogers customers, with a $5/month discount for the first year available to those who joined during the beta.
Yesterday, the big news in the satellite world was EchoStar axed its mobile satellite contract with Ontario’s MDA Space, to go with SpaceX instead in a $17 billion deal that is set to expand Starlink 5G globally. Since Rogers is a Starlink partner in Canada, that may let its customers get access to satellite data first before others.
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I've tested out the beta a little bit as a Bell subscriber. I would say that it worked ok but preferred to use the Apple Satellite service over the Rogers Beta. It did take mea little while to setup properly as I had to turn on data switching which was a little bit confusing. There is very limited instructions/youtube videos showing you how to set it up but eventually I got it figured out. You also can't test it until you are out of service with your cell service so thats a bit of a bummer. The biggest downside for me is that as a Bell subscriber it gives me a new eSim and phone number(not sure if this happens if you're already a Rogers Cell customer). So when I communicate with everyone they do not know who they are communicating with at first and I have to send a message first stating who this is. With Apple Satellite's service you don't have to do that as everything goes thru your primary sim card. I'll continue to use the beta but once Oct 31 comes around I won't be paying $10/15 a month.