Bell, working with Texas-based AST SpaceMobile, says it plans to deploy direct-to-cell service to the Canadian market in 2026 following successful testing in New Brunswick.
The two companies accomplished a few types of tests recently that they say will help improve communications in parts of Canada underserved by traditional telecommunications networks.
One test showcased the first-ever “voice-over-LTE” – a protocol most often used with 4G – call and video stream with Bell/AST SpaceMobile technology. Other tests demonstrated SMS messaging, broadband data and emergency alerts.
All of this was ferried through “the Bell Fibe TV app to a standard, unmodified smartphone over a Canadian wireless network,” Bell officials said in a release on Thursday (Oct. 2). The companies accomplished this work in a test in New Brunswick this summer, using AST SpaceMobile’s first five BlueBird satellites – which SpaceX launched in September 2024 – and Bell’s networks.
“This achievement lays the groundwork for Bell’s planned deployment of low Earth orbit direct-to-cell service in 2026,” Bell officials stated. The expected geographical reach will be 5.7 million square kilometers, with availability north of the 59th parallel. (For comparison, Whitehorse is about 60 degrees north.)
The communications giant plans to deploy this capability along the coast, and in Canada’s north, with possible markets including emergency response, remote operations in industries such as forestry and mining, and residential communications.
“We are uniquely positioned to deliver a highly reliable space-based cellular service that Canadians can depend on, built with their security and connectivity needs as the top priority,” stated Mark McDonald, executive vice-president and chief technology officer for Bell.
Bell stated the two companies began working together in 2021 “with an initial investment”, and the partnership now has financial backing from Bell’s corporate venture arm, called Bell Ventures. Bell emphasized, to speak to sovereignty concerns, that it owns and operates the base stations that ferry the signals between the satellites and the devices that customers will use.
Bell released this news roughly three months after its principal Canadian competitor, Rogers, launched its Rogers Satellite service on July 15. The service offers satellite-to-mobile text messaging using Rogers wireless spectrum, with SpaceX Starlink satellites.
The service “will initially support text messaging and text-to-911 and will expand to support apps, data and voice services, including 911 voice services,” Rogers officials stated in July. All Canadian residents can use the service – even if they are signed up with other providers – and the initial beta trial was no cost. Free usage after the trial will continue for Rogers customers with a Rogers Ultimate Plan, while other Canadian residents can access it for $15 a month.
Similar to Bell’s plans, Rogers has 5.4 million square kilometers of service, but it only covers customers up to the 58th parallel – which excludes the Northwest Territories, Nunavut and Yukon, and Nunavut as well as some of the northern areas of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Quebec.
It is notable that Rogers is partnering with Starlink, as the SpaceX company has reported 500,000 Canadian customers as of July 14. (Not all of those customers are in rural areas, but SpaceX is often seen as the company of choice when moving outside of the city due to its speed and availability.)
On the corporate side, Telesat Lightspeed is also planning to offer service to remote and northern areas of Canada, principally for government and corporate customers. The deployment has been delayed several years to 2016 due to issues with the supply chain induced by the pandemic, which led to a revised design and revised funding. But all has remained to the new schedule for several quarters.
In the most recent quarterly call in August, CEO Dan Goldberg told analysts something on everyone’s minds lately – with the global rise of defence spending in recent years, the north will be one of those frontiers.
“Canada, like the rest of the U.S allies, is looking to spend more money on defense in part to meet [NATO] contribution commitments,” Goldberg said at the time. “I think Telesat Lightspeed is very well-positioned to meet the government’s requirements in terms of northern sovereignty, NORAD modernization, making capabilities available to their allies, and so on.”
There are many factors behind this sovereignty movement. For example, climate change is making it easier for foreign vessels to traverse Canadian waters at all times of year in the far north, where there are fewer surveillance systems. Hypersonic missiles are becoming more of a threat, to an extent that Canada is spending more money on over-the-horizon radar.
There is also a growing clash of powers between the U.S., and the partnership of China and Russia, regarding several matters of space policy – including worries about the security of satellites in orbit. The U.S. has also been calling on its allies, as Goldberg alluded to, to spend more money for NATO – which is driving an increase in defence contracting opportunities.