As 2025 draws to a close, it's clear that the Ontario government's plan to connect everyone in the province to high-speed internet will not be achieved, and it now appears that the deadline has been pushed back to 2028.
However, this plan was not always destined to fail. Before the trade war with the US (and Elon Musk) earlier this year The Ontario government had a $100 million plan with Starlink to help provide high-speed internet access to people living in remote areas.. But it was one of the first moves the Ford government took against Musk and his close ties to President Donald Trump.
Without Starlink, the situation looks bleaker for rural Ontarians, who will now either have to sign up for an unsubsidized version of Starlink or try to find another way to get online. However, this plan appears to depend on whether the feud between Canada and the US subsides or whether a Starlink competitor emerges.
There are other companies working on satellite Internet in the same way, such as Amazon's Project Kuiper, Eutelsat OneWeb, and in Canada there is Telesat is working on this. However, none of these currently operate at the scale of Starlink, and Telesat is still a long way from creating a viable product.
The Canadian satellite competitor still plans to begin launching its low-Earth orbit satellites by the end of 2026 and recently acquired land near Timmins, Ontario to establish a landing station. However, it should be noted that this schedule has been pushed back, and the company said during its earnings call on November 4 that it will likely launch test satellites in December 2026. The bulk of launches will occur in 2027, allowing the service to be rolled out to customers, which could even coincide with Ontario's new deadline.
Source: Telesat, Global news
Image source: Shutterstock
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