Satellite Internet Canada

What is Satellite Internet?
Satellite Internet is a global wireless infrastructure to transmit and receive data between ground-based satellite dishes and the geostationary satellites orbiting the Earth 22,300 miles above the equator. The communication for Internet services between Earth and sky satellites is not direct but rather goes through a terrestrial Network Operations Center.

A satellite internet system consists of an antenna and modem at the end user's location, which sends and receives a signal to a satellite in space, which in turn transmits this signal to the network operators ground station infrastructure.  

Pros and Cons
Satellite Internet is affected by weather so strong winds and heavy rains would disrupt the Internet service, as would minor interferences such as buildings or trees. Often times, there’s also poor latency with delays in communications. Furthermore, satellite internet in general is typically more expensive and the download speeds are generally slower than land based options.

However, when you need Internet services from an isolated region or you cannot access a landline, satellite Internet is your lifesaving option. It works when nothing else does.

Satellite Internet Solutions
Canada Satellite provides a wide choice in portable satellite Internet equipment and accessories to access Internet services from any location on the planet. These satellite devices are portable and not designed for residential use.

Marine Satellite Internet
If you’re heading out on a long sea voyage and looking for an internet solution, options include VSAT for large vessels, Iridium OpenPort and brand new Certus services as well as FleetBroadband and Fleet One services from Inmarsat. The latter, the incumbent in the field, started as the INternational MARitime SATellite organization as a NATO mandate in the late 1970s as a safety service to seafarers.  Inmarsat marine terminals range in price from US$2,500 to well over $10,000 and data speeds range from 100 Kbps on the Fleet One service up to 500 Kbps with FleetBroadband. 

The Iridium OpenPort service offers global coverage, including polar regions, and the service tops out at 128 Kbps.  The terminal, called the Iridium Pilot, costs about US$5,000.  The Iridium Certus service offers maritime speeds of up to 700 Kbps via two available terminals, the Cobham SAILOR 4300 and Thales VesseLink, starting at US$6500.  The price of the Intellian C700 is yet to be released.

VSAT antennas range in diameter from 60 centimeters to 2.4 meters and are most often found on cargo ships, cruise ships, ferries and workboats.  Marine VSAT antenna prices start at US$20,000 for the 60cm model to over US$100,000 for the large models.  Internet service is offered via a global patchwork of VSAT network operators and available speeds are up to 20 Mbps.  

For those boat enthusiasts who don’t venture too far, a signal booster may suffice, but for those heading out to the horizon, satellite is your only solution for Internet.  All marine antennas offer easy deployment, stabilized connectivity and reliability, however, some larger VSAT terminals will require professional installation.

Land
Iridium’s range of portable satellite Internet devices connect to 66 orbital satellites giving 100% global coverage. Inmarsat also offers top quality products like their iSavi Wi-Fi satellite hotspot devices that are portable and lightweight, with low battery consumption and a myriad of features for best connectivity for your handheld or tablet device. Cobham and Hughes are other models to connect to the Inmarsat network.

The land satellite solutions work on a robust network to provide mobility and reliability for web, voice, and text communications.

VSAT
A ‘Very Small Aperture Terminal’ (VSAT) is a ground-based antenna that transmits and receives data from satellites. A VSAT is small and no bigger than 3 meters but has real-time capabilities for communicating with satellites. Inmarsat, Iridium and VSAT’s iNetVu offer satellite Internet equipment through the Canada Satellite online shop.

Satellite Internet is recommended for living and working in remote areas; it is not the best option if you’re a suburban gamer.

Canada Satellite offers various specialty satellite internet equipment and devices, including portable, vehicular and maritime.  At this time, we do not offer residential satellite internet services.

Residential Satellite Internet
There are 2 main residential satellite internet service providers in Canada. Galaxy Broadband, which primarily offers business services, but also residential services in parts of British Columbia and northern Ontario and Xplornet.  As of September 30th, 2019, Xplornet offers unlimted satellite internet plans with speeds of up to 25 Mbps with a promotional price of $59.95 per month for 3 months, then C$129.95/ month. Canada Satellite is not afiliated with either of these companies.  Bell TV and Shaw Direct provide satellite TV services across Canada, but neither offers satellite internet services.

Canada Residential Satellite Internet Provider Contact Info

Xplornet
300 Lockhart Mill Road
P.O. Box 9060
Woodstock, NB E7M 6B5

Sales: 1 (877) 969-3152
Support: 1 (866) 841-6001
Phone: (506) 328-8853
Fax: 1-800-862-1233
Support: 1-866-841-6001
or dial 711 on your phone relay service

Email: [email protected]
Web: https://www.xplornet.com/

Galaxy Broadband Communications Inc.
4020A Sladeview Cres, Unit 4
Mississauga, ON L5L 6B1

Phone: 1 (877) 463-9728
Support: 1 (877) 863-8439
Fax: 1 (877) 327-8448

[email protected]
http://www.galaxybroadband.ca/

Portable Satellite Internet
There are several classes of portable or mobile satellite internet terminals available on the market today, ranging from ultra portable devices about the size of a laptop, starting at about C$1600 to full size VSAT antennas that can be broken down to airline checkable cases.  The airline checkable antennas typically cost tens of thousands of dollars.

Vehicular Satellite Internet
Get satellite internet while driving with various vehicular internet terminals. Companies like Bell Satellite Internet and Shaw Satellite Internet facilitate communications for satellite internet in Canada.

The future of satellite internet
In the race to provide internet connectivity to the most remote parts of the planet and to the 3 billion of its inhabitants who currently aren't online, alongside traditional satellite network operators, a new class of entrants have emerged in the arena disrupting the industry as a whole.  For decades, the cost of satellite manufacturing and launch of a single satellite cost hundreds of millions of dollars.  As a result, only a handful of governments and companies have sent satellites into orbit.

In just the last few years, a number of private companies have announced plans or deployed new high speed satellites which will offer speeds, latency and costs that will rival ground based services.  As of November 2019, Starlink has launched and began testing of 120 satellites out of their planned 12,000 satellite constallation, and aims to provide high speed internet to the most remote parts of the world, using a low cost (approximately US$200) pizza-sized box.  The constallation will take about a decade to deploy, and is estimated to cost ten billion US dollars.

Amazons Project Kuiper is a long-term initiative to launch a constellation of Low Earth Orbit satellites that will provide low-latency, high-speed broadband connectivity to unserved and underserved communities around the world.

Oneweb endeavours to provide access to high speed, reliable Internet to everbody.

Satellite Internet News

New space race to bring satellite internet to the world (ctvnews.ca, May 12, 2019)