WASHINGTON — The Canadian government is preparing to sign long-term leases with commercial satellite providers as part of a project to provide people in rural areas with high-speed access to the Internet.
Infrastructure Canada, a federal agency charged with using public money to improve facilities across the country, has earmarked about 85 million Canadian dollars ($65.3 million) to help fund the effort, which is known as the Broadband Satellite Initiative. That money would be used to lease about four satellite transponders for between 10 and 15 years, said Peter Hill, director of broadband at Industry Canada, the government agency coordinating the program.
Industry Canada regulates the deployment and operation of telecommunications systems in that country.
In addition to the 85 million Canadian dollars it has set aside, the Canadian government also has reserved 70 million Canadian dollars worth of satellite capacity with Telesat Canada, the country’s satellite communications provider, to bring speedy data links to as many as 3,000 remote, sparsely populated communities, Hill said.
The Canadian Space Agency — which co-operated with Telesat Canada on the development of the Ka-band payload on Telesat’s Anik F2 satellite, now under construction — also is involved with the broadband project.
Hill said the Canadian government would consider leasing the capacity from any satellite operator able to provide coverage of Canada and expects to name the winning bidders sometime in the third quarter of 2004.
As it prepares to put out an official request for proposals to the commercial satellite community, Industry Canada intends to work closely with industry to ensure that the initiative does not interfere with direct leases of satellite capacity to local communities or the Internet providers that serve them.
"We do not intend to put people out of business," Hill said. "We want to do this in concert with industry. We want their input."
The government is not looking to provide communities with a free ride, Hill said, but is instead intent upon giving a boost to existing local efforts to arrange for Internet links.
"This is not to replace, it is to augment," he said. "We want to make sure the people who get [access to the satellite capacity] will use it because they actually have their own money in play."
Industry Canada already has access to transponders on spacecraft owned by Ottawa-based Telesat. This capacity includes a C-band transponder on Telesat’s Anik E2R satellite, which is to be replaced by the future Anik F3. The C-band capacity is valued at 20 million Canadian dollars, Hill said.
The government also will be able to use a percentage of the Ka-band capacity on the Anik F2 satellite, scheduled for launch during early 2004, said Paul Bush, a spokesman for Telesat. That satellite also is intended to provide data-transmission services in the United States from WildBlue Communications of Denver, which intends to offer satellite-based Internet access services direct to consumers in the United States.
The Canadian Space Agency gained access to the Ka-band capacity on Anik F2 in return for providing assistance with the development of the payload, said Pierre Maltais, a manager in the agency’s space technology development program.
The space agency feels that by contributing the capacity to Industry Canada for the National Satellite Initiative, it is furthering the country’s goal of fostering the development and deployment of technologies that improve the quality of life for Canadians, he said. At the same time, the space agency wants to be sure its activities do not hurt the commercial prospects of the satellite industry, Maltais added.
"One of the top priorities of the Canadian government is our connectivity agenda," Maltais said. "We also specified … that this is for the benefit of communities. These are socially oriented goals."
Bush said Telesat is interested in locking up deals to provide the rest of the satellite capacity the government intends to lease for the National Satellite Initiative. He said Telesat has invested significantly in deploying satellites and other resources to make sure that people who live outside of the country’s metropolitan areas — mostly along the Canadian border with the United States — have access to satellite services.
Hill said Industry Canada intends to allocate satellite capacity incrementally to communities that demonstrate they are capable of quickly taking advantage of the connectivity.
Hill’s office will accept applications from communities in several rounds, allowing towns that are not yet ready to put government-provided satellite capacity to use to have a chance to receive a grant when they are prepared. The first group of applications were due to Industry Canada Jan. 22, according to the agency’s Web site.
Hill said the government does not intend to turn the initiative into a competition and hopes to be able to provide satellite capacity to every eligible community — defined as those places that are unable to connect to the Internet with terrestrial links. "Our objective is to bring broadband to all communities in Canada."
But Hill said there would be communities that either do not qualify for the capacity grants or do not see the need to ask for it. "Some communities won’t be able to pull together, and some won’t want" to participate in the program, he said.
