Terrestar Solutions, an Ottawa-based satellite company, has signed on to join a new global satellite network called Equatys. The goal is to let regular phones in Canada connect to satellites when there’s no cell signal, and keep working when you travel abroad.
The deal was announced on Wednesday during a United Arab Emirates visit tied to talks with Prime Minister Mark Carney. It comes as Ottawa pushes to rely less on foreign satellite networks.
Terrestar calls itself Canada’s only sovereign mobile-satellite operator, which means it’s Canadian-controlled. It was founded in 2008 by the Quebec group behind Fido, and it holds 40 MHz of Canadian satellite spectrum for phones and devices. It already runs a service called Strigo over an existing satellite, and it’s planning its own low-orbit satellite network called CaStar.
Equatys is a shared satellite network started by UAE space company Space42 and U.S. satellite firm Viasat, backed by up to $1 billion US. Under the agreement, Terrestar’s CaStar network would link up with Equatys so phones could move between the two. Each company would still own and run its own satellites and customers.
Keeping it Canadian is a big part of the plan, so this means CaStar’s ground stations would stay in Canada; traffic from Canadian users stays under Canadian law, while still linking to Equatys for coverage worldwide.
“The future of mobile satellite connectivity won’t be built by countries or constellations acting alone,” said Jacques Leduc, President and CEO of Terrestar Solutions. “It will be built through open standards-based networks that combine national sovereignty with global reach, positioning us to compete at scale.” His goal, he added, is “to make mobile satellite connectivity a reality for every Canadian, wherever they live, work, or travel around the world.”
This isn’t Terrestar’s first try at phone-to-satellite service. In 2023 it worked with Telus and Skylo on early smartphone-to-satellite trials in Canada.
Carney said in September that Canada will diversify away from Starlink, and he has since warned that relying on one supplier puts Canadians at risk. Canadian carriers still use Starlink for satellite texting today, including Rogers’ satellite roaming, which just expanded to Japan, Australia and New Zealand. A Canadian-run network gives Ottawa another option.
Terrestar hasn’t said when CaStar will launch or when Canadian phones could use it.
Would you switch to a Canadian satellite service for your phone if it worked as well as Starlink?
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