Telesat LEO network illustration Credit: Telesat
WASHINGTON — Telesat has signed the largest contract in its history, a roughly $1.63 billion agreement to provide the Canadian military with secure communications across the Arctic and finance a substantial expansion of its Lightspeed satellite network.
The agreement with Canada’s Defence Investment Agency covers military Ka-band services beginning in 2028. It includes two five-year options valued at about $142 million each, which would bring the contract’s total value to approximately $1.92 billion and extend the service period to 15 years.
The contract gives Telesat an anchor defense customer before Lightspeed begins service and supplies funding to increase the number of fully financed satellites in the low Earth orbit constellation from 156 to 225. Telesat said the network remains on schedule to begin global service in the first quarter of 2028.
Telesat is a Canadian satellite operator with an established fleet in geostationary orbit. Lightspeed, its planned low Earth orbit network, is aimed primarily at government, defense and enterprise customers rather than the consumer broadband market served by larger constellations such as SpaceX’s Starlink.
