Province inks $100M deal with Starlink to provide internet to 15K homes and businesses in northern Ontario

The Ontario government is partnering with Elon Musk's Starlink to provide high-speed internet access to 15,000 eligible homes and businesses in rural, remote and northern communities by June 2025.

The new Ontario Satellite Internet (ONSAT) program is part of the provincial government's nearly $4-billion investment to bring high speed internet access to every community in Ontario.

At a news conference in Sudbury, Ont., Ontario Minister of InfrastructureKinga Surma said the province signed a nearly $100-million with SpaceX, which runs the Starlink satellite internet service.

"What the province will be doing is we will be paying for the installation and equipment fees," Surma said.

In an email to CBC News Ash Milton, a spokesperson for the Minister of Infrastructure said the province is paying SpaceX$92 million to reserve capacity on its network for the 15,000 customers.

"The agreement between the province and SpaceX will ensure that service remains accessible. SpaceX has agreed to reserve capacity in its low-earth orbital system, guaranteeing service availability for Ontario customers regardless of global demand on SpaceX's network," the email said.

Surma said homes and businesses that qualify for the service will be able to register in the spring of 2025.

Residential service plans for Starlink internet start at $140 a month and business plans start at $185 a month.

Michael Lindsay, the president and CEO of Infrastructure Ontario, said the province held a competitive procurement process to choose a satellite internet provider for the ONSAT program.

"As part of those contract requirements, SpaceX is going to engage directly with Indigenous communities to ensure equal access to the program and to create socioeconomic opportunities through employment, contracting and training opportunities where feasible," he said.

Joel Cherkis, the senior manager of Starlink business operations, said at the announcementthat his company's satellites operate at around 550 kilometres above the Earth, which is different than traditional satellite internet providers, which operate at around 35,000 kilometres above the Earth's surface.

"By being much closer to the Earth, that enables us to deliver high speed capability at a very low latency," Cherkis said.

That means less lagtime on the signaL.

"Low latency is important because of some of the things that Minister Surma mentioned, things like online streaming services, being able to have video calls, being able to do online gaming, or to live your life using the broadband capabilities."

Cherkis said there are more than four million Starlink customers in over 100 countries.

He added that SpaceX has been launching around 40 new Starlink satellites into orbit every week.