Merci.
Good morning, one and all.
Madam Chair, thank you for inviting Telesat to participate today.
I’m Dan Goldberg, CEO of Telesat. I’m here this morning, as you said, with my colleagues Michele Beck and Stephen Hampton.
Operating for over 50 years, with our headquarters here in Ottawa, where I'm speaking from today, Telesat is one of the world’s largest, most successful satellite operators. As a proud Canadian company, we play a central role in Canada’s connectivity infrastructure. Today our satellites transmit hundreds of television channels to well over a million Canadian households across all of Canada through our services to Bell TV and Shaw Direct. We provide broadband and other lifeline services to rural, remote and indigenous communities, and we deliver mission critical services to Canada’s national security and public safety community. That's just some of what we do here in Canada. We offer these same types of services all around the world.
We operate in what is one of the most highly competitive global markets, including here in Canada, where the market has been wide open to foreign competitors for more than the last two decades. We're good with that. We strongly support open, competitive markets, as they spur innovation and lower costs. Telesat needs and advocates for open markets all around the world, even if we don't always get them.
We strongly share this committee’s objective of delivering affordable, high-capacity broadband to the millions of Canadians who lack it today, which is now more important than ever given the pandemic. Telesat has been a leading innovator in providing broadband over satellite, designing and launching the first broadband satellite in the world over a decade and a half ago. However, the reality is that the geostationary satellites we’ve been launching and operating for the past 50 years, even though each new generation is much more capable than the last one, are simply too far out in space to provide the kind of superfast, affordable broadband needed today.
That's why we've undertaken the most ambitious and innovative project in our long history, a multi-billion dollar, state-of-the-art low-earth orbit, or LEO, satellite constellation. Telesat LEO consists of nearly 300 highly advanced satellites that deliver affordable, fibre-like broadband and enable LTE and 5G wireless services everywhere on earth, including throughout all of Canada. It's the biggest space program ever conceived in Canada, and it's exactly what this vast country needs to help bridge the digital divide.
Telesat LEO takes a holistic, community-focused approach to connect Canadians by partnering with local ISPs, mobile network operators, municipalities and indigenous communities. Telesat LEO will provide affordable, high-capacity backbone connectivity to a community, and then our local partner will provide the last-mile connectivity to households, schools, hospitals, small businesses and the like, as well as LTE and 5G services in the community and throughout the entire country.
Telesat LEO was designed in Canada by Canadians, and MIT researchers recently concluded that it's the most effectively designed LEO constellation being developed. We expect that the satellites and some of their key components will be built right here in Canada. From here in the national capital region, we'll operate the constellation and manage all of the global traffic that traverses it. Because of this, Telesat LEO will deliver tremendous economic and social benefits to Canada, helping to create roughly 1,000 jobs, generating valuable IP and exports and positioning Canada at the forefront of the burgeoning new space economy that, of course, will help to bridge the digital divide here as well. We plan to launch beta services in roughly two years' time, with commercial service coming online in 2023.
Some of the most innovative and well-financed companies in the world are developing their own LEO constellations, including SpaceX, and I’m very pleased to be testifying alongside them this morning.
SpaceX is a long-time partner. It launched our last two satellites. I'll note that Ms. Cooper, who is testifying as well, is an old and dear friend of mine and a colleague. We've worked hard to open up markets all over the world to competition.
I'm very pleased to see in that regard that SpaceX has been authorized to serve Canada with its Starlink constellation. Bridging the digital divide is a massive challenge, and no one company can solve it alone.
Other major players working on LEO include Amazon; OneWeb, which is backed by the U.K. government; and China and Russia, countries that recognize both the strategic and economic importance of LEO. All these players share a conviction that LEO is a compelling way to deliver affordable broadband to people living and working in rural and remote places, which in turn will foster a more equitable, inclusive economy and society.
Telesat is a recognized global leader in satellite communications, and our Telesat LEO constellation leverages our deep technical, operational and commercial expertise and our deeply ingrained culture of innovation. Our industry is highly dynamic and competitive, now perhaps more than at any time in our 50-year history, and we're very much in the midst of a high-stakes, highly competitive global space race. With focused execution and our world-class team of professionals, I have every confidence that we're going to be a winner in this race, keeping Telesat and Canada at the forefront of the fast-growing new space economy and bridging the digital divide here at home and throughout the rest of the world as well.
Thank you again for the opportunity to participate in this important hearing. My colleagues and I look forward to answering any questions you may have for us.
Thank you.