Terrestar Solutions Inc. (TSI) has achieved a major milestone in its quest to support full direct to mobile service via satellite across all of Canada.
On December 10, 2024, Terrestar announced that it and Mavenir, the cloud-native network infrastructure provider, had successfully transmitted live data sessions via Narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) from the ground and back via the TSI Echostar T1 satellite, as the basis of a Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) Non-Terrestrial Network (NTN). This achievement not only paves the way for IoT (Internet of Things) applications but also sets the foundation for enabling satellite-supported voice services in the near future, enhancing connectivity for Canadians across remote and underserved regions.
The transmissions originated from the Terrestar Gateway — colocated with Telesat’s Allan Park Ontario primary earth station facility — where key connectivity functions were demonstrated. These included Network Attach, Paging, Ping, data sessions, and Non-IP Data Delivery (NIDD). Continuous 24-hour connectivity was achieved using various vendors’ 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) IoT devices, proving the reliability of 3GPP-standardized devices for future commercial deployments.
“This achievement represents a major milestone in our collaboration with Mavenir to bring commercial NB-IoT to market as the first phase of service evolution for mass market mobile satellite services (MSS),” said Jacques Leduc, TSI’s President and CEO. “It also aligns with our mission to connect all Canadians everywhere to everything using our MSS spectrum and standardized technology to complement MNO (mobile network operators) architecture. By successfully testing our joint NTN solution in real-world conditions, we have demonstrated the maturity and reliability of this technology.”
The tests not only validate NB-IoT capabilities but also signal the broader potential for supporting voice communication services, further enhancing Terrestar’s value proposition for MNOs and their subscribers.
Leduc’s focus on Canadian MNOs — i.e. Bell, Rogers, Telus, and so forth — is highly intentional. This is because TSI aims to provide MNOs with satellite connectivity to reach underserved areas. Basically, TSI will use its satellite network to fill in the gaps where traditional cellular networks don’t reach, charging MNOs to access this expanded coverage. For the MNOs, this means they can extend their service areas to cover the entire country — from remote northern communities to the vast stretches between towns — without having to build expensive new infrastructure.
To make this transition easier, TSI and Mavenir are setting up an NB-IoT lab in Montreal, where MNOs can test and adapt to this new satellite-powered technology. For Canadians, this means they’ll be able to stay connected even in the most isolated areas, and for TSI, it creates a steady, long-term source of revenue by complementing what MNOs already offer.
Since the dawn of GSM, the biggest challenge facing the mobile industry remains delivering universal coverage, in particular in regions where there is no current economic case,” said Pardeep Kohli, President and CEO of Mavenir. “Non-terrestrial networks offer an ideal solution to this challenge, efficiently delivering cost-effective coverage over wide areas, both opening new markets and augmenting existing terrestrial cellular services.”
For both partners, choosing to support MNOs rather than compete with them makes the most business sense. “The reason for doing so is that we have 40 MHz of S-band mobile-satellite spectrum across Canada, which is enough spectrum and capacity to support all Canadian cellular users regardless of who their service provider is,” Leduc said.
Using Echostar T1, its ground network infrastructure and MSS spectrum, TSI can produce coverage as far north as Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories, he added. “However, in the very near future we plan to announce a constellation of LEO satellites that will cover Canada up to the North Pole with 5G broadband service.”