The government of Quebec, Canada, announced plans to invest $50 million to connect the entire province of Quebec to high-speed internet, which includes 250,000 households. On May 9, government representative Gilles Bélanger shared at a press conference that a total of 10,000 of those homes will be connected to SpaceX's Starlink satellite Internet by Sept. 30, 2022.
SpaceX currently operates a total of 2,352 satellites in Low Earth Orbit that provide internet service to users living across 32 countries. Starlink customers easily access the space-based internet through a phased-array antenna that is easy to install without a professional technician. SpaceX says Starlink provides internet download speeds between 100 Mbps and 200 Mbps [megabits per second] and latency as low as 20ms [milliseconds].
Qualifying Quebec residents will be able to order the Starlink hardware online from Starlink.com and the government plans to provide a refund of the cost of the hardware that currently costs $599 USD with a monthly internet subscription fee of $110 USD. The 10,000 homes that will be selected to receive free-of-charge Starlink service are located in rural and remote regions of the province, where fiber-optic infrastructures are unavailable or where internet service signal is unreliable.
“We had to wait two months to finalize the agreement with SpaceX. They sent thousands of terminals to Ukraine to allow them to communicate. I think it was a good decision on our part,” said Bélanger. SpaceX delivered thousands of Starlink user terminals to Ukraine to enable civilians to maintain a reliable communication system amid the war with Russia. Starlink has demonstrated to be helpful for emergency responders in disaster-struck regions.
Featured Image Source: SpaceX
About the Author
Evelyn Janeidy Arevalo
Evelyn J. Arevalo joined Tesmanian in 2019 to cover news as a Space Journalist and SpaceX Starbase Texas Correspondent. Evelyn is specialized in rocketry and space exploration. The main topics she covers are SpaceX and NASA.
