Rogers chief executive Tony Staffieri told analysts Friday that SpaceX plans to bring its Starlink Mobile phone service to Canada through wireless carriers rather than compete with them.
SpaceX told Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) this summer that it would offer the service to every interested Canadian carrier and its customers, and would not deal exclusively with any one of them. Starlink “does not plan to offer its own standalone service” here, the submission says.
Bell and Telus have built their satellite-to-phone plans around a rival, AST SpaceMobile, but SpaceX’s offer would let either add Starlink. ISED, meanwhile, has frozen new licensing in the satellite bands SpaceX’s next system needs while it reviews its rules, and has said a stand-alone satellite phone service could change the structure of the Canadian wireless market.
Rogers points to Canada’s spectrum and ownership rules
Staffieri was answering UBS analyst Batya Levi, who asked on Rogers’ third-quarter results call how Starlink could change competition in Canadian broadband and mobile. Rogers launched Rogers Satellite, a texting and light-data service carried by Starlink satellites, as a trial in July 2025 and took it commercial last December. Staffieri said Rogers was deepening its work with SpaceX and that “Rogers intends to lead Canada as we work with Starlink Mobile.”
Canada has much less spectrum available than the United States, where SpaceX is assembling its own, Staffieri said, and the bands behind the most recent U.S. purchases are extremely limited or unavailable here, where the public sector largely uses them. He added that Canada’s population is smaller and concentrated in a few cities, and that its foreign-ownership rules extend to spectrum.
On home internet, he called Starlink’s Canadian market share very small, mostly in rural areas with no alternative, and said Rogers resells it to some small businesses. Later in the call he said Rogers is relying more on its satellite partnership with SpaceX to reach rural customers.
Rogers’ quarterly report lists Rogers Satellite among the reasons its other operating costs rose. The company also gave the service free to every Rogers wireless customer in British Columbia during this summer’s wildfire state of emergency.
SpaceX asks Ottawa to match the U.S. band plan
SpaceX filed its comments in ISED’s preliminary consultation on mobile-satellite service. ISED took comments from May 13 to July 13.
According to the filing, hundreds of thousands of Canadians used the first-generation service through Rogers in its first year. SpaceX’s second-generation system would run on the 2 GHz mobile-satellite band and be at least 20 times faster, using spectrum rights SpaceX has agreed to buy from EchoStar. Those rights transfer in November 2027, and SpaceX told ISED it expects service to start by late that year.
SpaceX asked ISED to match the American band plan, including a further slice of spectrum for phones to transmit to satellites, and to keep the 2 GHz band in one block rather than divide it among providers. Reserving the band for domestic operators, it argued, would disadvantage SpaceX, which it called the only provider now delivering direct-to-device service in Canada.
Bell and Telus are building on AST SpaceMobile
Bell and Telus picked AST SpaceMobile, a Midland, Texas, company building a constellation of BlueBird satellites whose large antenna arrays are designed to deliver cellular broadband straight to standard, unmodified phones. The U.S. Federal Communications Commission granted AST commercial authority in April for a network of up to 248 satellites.
Bell finished a ground station in Quebec in July and began integration testing. Telus, which took an equity stake in AST in March, completed its first integration test with the satellites on Oct. 5 and expects to offer service within a year. Neither carrier has said whether it will also take up SpaceX’s offer.
Ottawa weighs reserving spectrum for Canadian systems
ISED’s consultation asks whether spectrum should be reserved for Canadian systems, or Canadian networks given priority, and whether satellite operators serving Canada should have to cover the whole country. ISED wrote that stand-alone satellite 5G services “could have an impact on the structure of the telecommunications market in Canada.”
The licensing freeze has been in place since May 13, when ISED opened the consultation, and covers licence transfers as well as new licences in three sets of bands, including the 2 GHz band. Applications already filed are on hold until the review is done.
ISED says it will use the comments to decide whether a fuller consultation is needed.