French-UK Starlink rival challenges Canada over ‘sovereign’ satellite service for Arctic military operations

A company owned by the French and UK governments is giving Canada the go-ahead on a nearly $250-million plan to provide secure satellite broadband coverage to troops 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 is looking to deepen the partnership as Canada looks to diversify defense contracts away from suppliers in the United States.

The proposal for the Canadian Department of National Defense to join the French Defense Ministry’s 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.

According to Eutelsat and French defense officials, the prime minister’s first question was how the proposal would affect Telesat Corporation, a former Canadian Crown corporation that was privatized in the 1990s.

Telesat is in the process of developing its Lightspeed system, a constellation of low Earth orbit (LEO) 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.

‘Sovereign Capacity’

An Eutelsat official said the company already has its own satellite network with Canadian partners and is providing support to Canadian forces stationed in Latvia.

“What we can provide for Canada is what we call a sovereign capacity capability, where Canada will actually own all of our capacity in the far north or wherever they need it,” David Van Dyke, general manager of Canada at Eutelsat, said in a recent interview with CBC News.

“We also give them the ability to not be under the control of any one person who might decide to shut down the service for political or other reasons.”

What Van Dyke is referencing, more than anything else, are reports that Musk ordered Starlink to be shut down in Ukraine in late September 2022 during the Eastern European country’s crucial effort to take back the territory from Russia.

The order disrupted counter-operations in areas including Kherson, a strategic area north of the Black Sea. At least 100 terminals went dark, according to sources who spoke to Reuters news agency.

Sour feelings on Starlink?

Starlink has millions of customers in Canada and has been a major source of broadband Internet access in the Far North. Starlink is a subsidiary of Musk’s SpaceX rocket company.

But Musk’s tenure as head of the Department of Government Efficiency in the second administration of US President Donald Trump has dampened enthusiasm to such an extent that Ontario – angered by US tariffs – last summer officially canceled a $100 million contract with Starlink to provide service in northern communities.

Eutelsat has significant contracts with the US government, including the Pentagon. But since Trump returned to office the company has seen at least one major US Defense Department contract – worth $55 million US – not renewed.

Christophe Cordelier, the company’s chief financial officer, told investors last spring that the non-renewal “reflects a change in the geographic priority of the new presidential administration for the Department of Defense, including in the additional context of efforts to cut overall government spending.”

According to the company’s website, Eutelsat provides secure communications in the aviation sector, connecting both manned aircraft and drones, as well as aerial intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft.

The French government is the largest shareholder in the company. Indian multinational Bharti Space Limited and the UK government are also major shareholders.

A large part of Eutelsat’s presentation to Canada included the now-familiar language of finding a reliable defense partner and taking control of secure systems and data.

“We’re giving them the opportunity to take control and partner with trusted nations and also provide them with everything they need to support things like over the horizon radar sites, NORAD modernization projects and expansion north for defense,” Van Dyke said.

“We can do that today. So the Canadian government needs the ability to say yes to us taking that (satellite) capacity and then delivering it.”