OTTAWA -- Canada's Telesat is racing to launch a low-earth-orbit satellite constellation to provide high-speed global broadband from space, pitting the satellite communications firm founded in 1969 against two trailblazing billionaires, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos.
Telesat's LEO has a much lighter price tag than SpaceX and Amazon's, and the company has been in satellite services decades longer. In addition, instead of focusing on the consumer market like SpaceX and Amazon, Telesat seeks deep-pocketed business clients. Then in 2015 on a flight home from a Paris industry conference where latency was a constant theme, Goldberg wrote down his initial ideas for a LEO constellation on an Air Canada napkin.
"Starlink is going to be in service much sooner ... and that gives SpaceX the opportunity to win customers," said Caleb Henry, a senior analyst at Quilty Analytics. They are Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd, Europe's ArianeGroup , and Musk's SpaceX, which launches the Starlink satellites. Wendling said a decision would be taken in a matter of months.