French-UK Starlink Rival Pitches Canada On 'Sovereign' Satellite Service (www.cbc.ca)
- Reference: 0180556526
- News link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/01/09/2349211/french-uk-starlink-rival-pitches-canada-on-sovereign-satellite-service
- Source link: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/satellite-eutelsat-starlink-musk-defence-communications-9.7038830
> A company largely owned by the French and U.K. governments is [1]pitching Canada on a roughly $250-million plan to provide the military with secure satellite broadband coverage in the Arctic, CBC News has learned. Eutelsat, a rival to tech billionaire Elon Musk's Starlink, already provides some services to the Canadian military, but wants to deepen the partnership as Canada looks to diversify defence contracts away from suppliers in the United States.
>
> A proposal for Canada's Department of National Defence to join a French Ministry of Defence initiative involving Eutelsat was apparently raised by French President Emmanuel Macron with Prime Minister Mark Carney on the sidelines of last year's G7 summit in Alberta. The prime minister's first question, according to Eutelsat and French defence officials, was how the proposal would affect the Telesat Corporation, a former Canadian Crown corporation that was privatized in the 1990s.
>
> Telesat is in the process of developing its Lightspeed system, a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) constellation of satellites for high-speed broadband. And in mid-December, the Liberal government announced it had established a strategic partnership with Telesat and MDA Space to develop the Canadian Armed Forces' military satellite communications (MILSATCOM) capabilities. A Eutelsat official said the company already has its own satellite network in place and running, along with Canadian partners, and has been providing support to the Canadian military deployed in Latvia.
"What we can provide for Canada is what we call a sovereign capacity capability where Canada would actually own all of our capacity in the Far North or wherever they require it," said David van Dyke, the general manager for Canada at Eutelsat.
"We also give them the ability to not be under the control of a singular individual who could decide to disconnect the service for political or other reasons."
[1] https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/satellite-eutelsat-starlink-musk-defence-communications-9.7038830
Re: (Score:3)
> Defense advice from the French, will force you to speak German. - History
France is world's #2 defence seller [1]https://www.sipri.org/media/pr... [sipri.org] . It's certainly much smaller than USA at this respect, but that still makes it the top contender when USA isn't a reliable partner anymore.
Also, I don't see what recent (less than 80 years old, that is) data would confirm your views related to issues between France and Germany. It certainly causes friction for the common development of certain projects (FCAS) because French and German requirements are different, but I don't get in the ne
[1] https://www.sipri.org/media/press-release/2025/ukraine-worlds-biggest-arms-importer-united-states-dominance-global-arms-exports-grows-russian
Sovereign space system launched by someone else (Score:2)
Unless I'm mistaken, Canada has no orbital launch capacity on its own soil or under its own control.
If you depend on a foreign nation to launch your satellites, the operative word is still depend.
Re:Sovereign space system launched by someone else (Score:5, Informative)
> If you depend on a foreign nation to launch your satellites, the operative word is still depend.
Wikipedia says "Spaceport Nova Scotia" under construction [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] , and second sub-orbital test rocket launched in November [2]https://www.thecanadianpressne... [thecanadianpressnews.ca]
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_rocket_launch_sites#North_America
[2] https://www.thecanadianpressnews.ca/science/nova-scotia-company-says-it-has-launched-its-second-suborbital-test-rocket/article_0f400d85-039e-5e33-8173-056753f5cbd6.html
Re: Sovereign space system launched by someone els (Score:3)
That's the case with most countries over the world.
At the rate Trump is alienating everyone I'm not surprised that Canada is looking for alternatives.
Re:Sovereign space system launched by someone else (Score:5, Interesting)
If Canada thinks they need communications services, they can have them today by purchasing a membership in Eutelsat. Later when they have their own launch capability and own satellite constellation operational, they can sell their share in Eutelsat and recover their initial investment. Seems a good deal.
Re: (Score:2)
> A company largely owned by the French and U.K. governments is pitching Canada on a roughly $250-million plan to provide the military with secure satellite broadband coverage in the Arctic
Arctic? Is that where the bulk of Canadians live? I know this was decades ago, but I recall reading a National Geographic story on the US-Canadian border, which mentioned that the majority of Canadians live along that border. With this plan, the only people getting satellite internet would be the First Nation people
A
Wake me (Score:1)
when they have satellites that only orbit over CA and the EU
Sovereign? (Score:1)
> "What we can provide for Canada is what we call a sovereign capacity
Whenever you hear the statement "What we call X", you know X doesn't actually mean what X really means.
Eutelsat still has a CEO (Score:2)
He's just not Elon Musk. I am not sure that's the guarantee I would be looking for, though.
Re:Eutelsat still has a CEO (Score:4, Informative)
Current president (Éric Labaye) is at least a graduated telecom engineer. He was involved in advising different governments (e.g. reform of the hospital system), but technically (as manager) and never ideologically. These are critical advantages over Musk. Mostly, Labaye is a former McKinsey board member.
Re: (Score:2)
> Current president (Éric Labaye) is at least a graduated telecom engineer.
Yeah, because Starlink clearly does not function well at all because Musk isn't a "graduated telecom engineer".
Re: (Score:1)
Elmo likes to play politics with StarLink. For example, aiding the Russians while pretending to help the Ukrainians.
Fuck Musk and Fuck StarLink, the white supremacist network.
Re: (Score:2)
He's still a singular individual in control of the network. The article talks about "owning capacity" not "owning satellites." IMHO, it sounds like yet another LEO telecom is looking for a customer with deep pockets and a high tolerance for cost overruns.
Re: (Score:2)
> He's still a singular individual in control of the network.
If the governments of France and UK together agree, they can use their majority share and remove him. That's probably the deal that they are referring to when claiming the control is not a singular individual; there is a governmental agreement behind. So it amounts to the trust that Canada has in the words of these governments. It's up to you to judge, but Europeans are known to go a far way to hold their international agreements, and all the three in question have been close allies since WWI.
The singular i