In orbit: Canada’s satellite-to-cell offerings poised to grow after Rogers beta trial

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This article was published 27/12/2025 (285 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

TORONTO – Years ago, Chris Mushumanski was called to assist in the rescue of a woman who had slipped on a trail while hiking in rural B.C., breaking her leg and plummeting 30 metres down a steep embankment.

Mushumanski, a volunteer of nearly 30 years with the BC Search and Rescue Association, recalled the challenges of that day. There was no cellular coverage along the trail, so the woman’s hiking partner had to trek down to the nearest highway to call for help. She waited in pain before crews eventually arrived.

Mushumanski compares that rescue with another emergency this past summer, in which a vehicle went off the road somewhere between Jasper National Park and McBride, B.C., within the valley known as the Rocky Mountain Trench.

“Nobody was really aware of where they were,” he said.

Despite also being out of cellular range, the driver involved in that emergency was able to send a text message seeking help. Search and rescue teams quickly sprang to action and tracked the vehicle’s exact location.

That was possible because the driver had been trialling a satellite-to-mobile service launched earlier this year by Rogers Communications Inc. The company introduced the service in July, offering text message capability for beta users before commercially launching earlier this month with WhatsApp voice and video calling also included.

“So much of British Columbia does not have cell service, and for folks … in those areas, when something goes wrong, getting help to them as fast as possible is critical,” said Mushumanski, who lives in Vanderhoof, near B.C.’s geographical centre.

“To be able to have that ability in real time to send out a notification is just game changing.”

Other apps such as Google Maps now work through Rogers Satellite as well, and the company plans to enable traditional cellphone calls, including 911 voice services, next year.

For Rogers, the rollout of satellite capability is happening “way ahead of schedule,” said chief executive Tony Staffieri in an interview this month. Not only is the technology evolving faster than Rogers was expecting, but the company has also been surprised by “the sheer number of users” during its trial period, with more than one million text messages sent over roughly six months.

It bills the service as a connectivity solution in areas where traditional cell coverage is not available, but Staffieri said usage hasn’t been limited to those regions.

“We thought the focus was going to be on rural and remote areas in terms of use cases,” he said.

“What we found is Canadians loved it in terms of not only those use applications, but also the peace of mind it provided to them. So even those in urban settings, as they go down (major highways), there have always been … dark spots where there’s no coverage by anyone.”

Rogers Satellite currently operates through a partnership with Elon Musk’s SpaceX. The latter’s Starlink low-earth orbit satellites combine with Rogers’ wireless network to automatically connect cellphones in dead zones.

Telecommunications consultant Mark Goldberg said the advantage of satellite coverage, which he called a “supplemental-style technology,” is it allows the industry “to cover bases that you can’t serve economically with traditional wireless towers on the ground.” 

Network infrastructure can be costly to build, especially in a country as vast as Canada.

Instead, Starlink’s low-earth orbit constellations act as a “bird in the air” able to see vast territories, said Goldberg. They establish connections with low latency — the time it takes for a signal to go from Earth up to the satellite and bounce back down.

“It’s a really valuable part of the toolset to provide nearly universal coverage of communications in a country the size of Canada,” he said.

While Rogers has been impressed with customers’ interest in urban usage, Goldberg said the technology still works best in rural environments. He said it’s “not a great solution in dense geographies” because the speed of applications could suffer if too many users are connected at once. 

While Rogers was first out of the gate to offer satellite coverage in Canada, other telecoms may not be far behind.

Bell has announced a partnership with AST SpaceMobile to deliver direct-to-cell satellite service, with an initial launch scheduled for late 2026, CEO Mirko Bibic said on an earnings call in November.

Telus Corp. trialled satellite technology in late 2023 in partnership with Montreal-based telecom TerreStar Solutions and non-terrestrial provider Skylo. CFO Doug French declined to comment on potential timelines for a commercial launch, but said in a recent interview “it won’t be too far away.”

Satellite-powered cellphone coverage will likely become “pretty much standard” over the next decade, said Carleton University professor Halim Yanikomeroglu, who researches mobile communication networks.

“The relevance of this technology is very different to Canada in comparison to some other developed countries (where) space assets will be just an add-on in those places, much less critical,” he said.

“But in a place like Canada, I cannot think of any other country where this discussion is more relevant. It is not something hypothetical. It can have big implications to Canada.”

Yanikomeroglu said it will take time for the quality of service to reach a level that Canadian consumers have come to expect when making calls or browsing apps using their cellular data and Wi-Fi. But as the technology evolves, he said companies will have economic motivation to fix those issues.

“None of these problems are, fundamentally from a technology viewpoint, unfixable if there is enough investment,” he said.

Staffieri said that’s on Rogers’ to-do list as its satellite offerings increase, along with uptake. He acknowledged that compared with a 5G+ network, “satellite speeds and capacity are less.”

There are other limitations, he said, including when trying to use Rogers Satellite indoors — since cellphones need a line of sight to a satellite for some capabilities to function — but Staffieri expressed confidence that can be eventually overcome.

For now, he said satellite is still “a complementary technology,” from Rogers’ point of view.

“I think Canadians expect that and understand the nature of the technology and that quickly over time, as more satellites, more capacity get added, it’ll continue to be better and better.”

That increased capacity should come as more constellations reach the sky.

Staffieri said he sat down with Canadian operator Telesat’s leadership in recent weeks to receive a status update on its preparations to launch the first of an initial 198 low-earth satellites in late 2026.

Along with Telesat, Staffieri said Rogers has entered into agreements with “several” satellite providers whose technology remains in development. The goal is for various constellations to eventually work in tandem with one another.

“What that will allow us to do is have more coverage in places like the Far North, but also redundancy,” he said.

“As soon as one of them is available and ready, then we’re going to bring that technology.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 27, 2025.

Companies in this story: (TSX:RCI.B, TSX:BCE, TSX:T)