Telesat to spend $40 million to expand broadband in Arctic

Satellite services company Telesat says it plans to spend $40 million to expand and modernize the broadband equipment and infrastructure serving Nunavut, the Northwest Territories and Yukon.

The Ottawa-based company said Thursday the expansion will help remedy gaps and shortcomings in the communications infrastructure serving the North, which were revealed in a recent communications assessment report.

Overall, Telesat said it will cost about $160 million over the next decade to provide additional communications infrastructure and the company is prepared to spend about a quarter of that -- or $40 million -- as its share.

The privately owned company said it will use the money to boost its satellite capacity and upgrade its  ground systems.

It has submitted its plan, called the Arctic Communications Infrastructure Initiative, to a federal government agency for approval.

"Telesat has been serving the North for 40 years and is deeply committed to ensuring that Northern communities have access to a broadband communications infrastructure that is on par with that which exists in southern Canada," said Paul Bush, Telesat's vice-president of business development.

"Our Arctic Communications Infrastructure Initiative will more than double the communications capacity serving the Arctic, provide urgently needed network redundancy in every Northern community, and put in place the long term funding required to ensure this modern and robust network is in place for at least the next 10 years."