SpaceX will offer Starlink Mobile to Canadian carriers without exclusivity

SpaceX will offer Starlink Mobile in Canada via wireless carriers rather than going head-to-head with them, Rogers Chief Executive Tony Staffieri said Friday. Staffieri made the remarks during Rogers’ third-quarter results call, where UBS analyst Batya Levi asked how Starlink could change competition in Canadian broadband and mobile. “Rogers intends to lead Canada as we work with Starlink Mobile,” Staffieri said. He said Rogers is deepening its work with SpaceX and intends to lead Canada as it works with Starlink Mobile.

Rogers introduced its Starlink-powered Rogers Satellite service as a texting and light-data trial in July 2025 and launched it commercially in December 2025. The service handles texting, text-to-911 and selected apps including WhatsApp and Google Maps, with U.S. coverage provided through T-Mobile’s T-Satellite network. Staffieri said Rogers has had the satellite product in market with current capabilities for almost a year and understands its use cases and limitations. He described satellite as a “complementary evolving product” to Rogers’ wireline and terrestrial wireless services, and said Rogers did not share any new features, pricing or timing for its Starlink collaboration.

SpaceX told ISED this summer that it would make Starlink Mobile available to all interested Canadian carriers and customers and would not grant exclusivity to any one carrier. The company also said it has no plans to operate a standalone service in Canada. The filing came in ISED’s preliminary consultation on mobile-satellite service, which accepted comments from May 13 to July 13. Staffieri said SpaceX’s public filings with federal regulators show it intends to work with wireless operators in Canada, and SpaceX asked ISED to match the U.S. band plan, add spectrum for phone-to-satellite transmissions, and keep the 2 GHz band undivided rather than split among providers, arguing that reserving it for domestic operators would disadvantage it.

SpaceX told ISED its next-generation system would use the 2 GHz mobile-satellite band and deliver speeds at least 20 times faster than the current service, with EchoStar rights transferring in November 2027 and service expected by late 2027. The company said hundreds of thousands of Canadians tried the initial Starlink service via Rogers during its first year of operation. During British Columbia’s summer wildfire state of emergency, Rogers provided the satellite service at no charge to all its wireless customers in the province. Rogers cited Rogers Satellite in its quarterly report as a factor behind higher other operating costs.

Staffieri said Canada offers far less spectrum than the United States, and the bands tied to the latest U.S. purchases are extremely limited or unavailable there because the public sector mostly uses them. He also said Canada has a smaller population concentrated in a few cities, and foreign-ownership rules there also cover spectrum. He described Starlink’s Canadian home internet share as very small, saying it mainly serves rural areas without alternatives and that Rogers resells the service to some small businesses. He described spectrum and foreign ownership rules as the same hurdles flagged earlier this year when a SpaceX mobile network first looked possible.

In the United States, SpaceX is buying spectrum licenses and plans to build out a terrestrial component to compete directly against AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile rather than only partner with them. SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said that the spectrum purchased from EchoStar has terrestrial components and that SpaceX definitely intends to build out the terrestrial component. She said AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile make roughly $600 billion a year combined and that she anticipates SpaceX will gain a few of their customers because its service will be better, remove dead zones, and perform better during natural disasters. “The spectrum that we purchased from EchoStar does have terrestrial components, so we definitely intend to build out the terrestrial component,” Shotwell said.

SpaceX said it will buy some low-frequency cellular spectrum to improve Starlink indoor signal performance. Elon Musk called the announcement a “very big deal” in a post on X. T-Mobile’s stock fell more than 11 percent after hours, while Verizon and AT&T shares fell by about 6.6 percent following the SpaceX announcements.

Bell and Telus based their satellite-to-phone strategies on AST SpaceMobile, and no decision has been announced by either carrier on accepting SpaceX’s Starlink Mobile offer. Bell completed a Quebec ground station in July and started integration testing for its AST SpaceMobile satellite plan. Telus bought an equity stake in AST SpaceMobile in March, finished its first satellite integration test on Oct. 5, and expects to launch service within 12 months. AST SpaceMobile, based in Midland, Texas, builds a constellation of BlueBird satellites with large antenna arrays intended to provide cellular broadband to standard phones without modifications.

Staffieri said Rogers is relying more on its satellite partnership with SpaceX to reach rural customers, and he described the enterprise use case implications, including IoT, as “tremendous.” Rogers partners with Starlink to sell the home internet service to small businesses, adding its own business application services on top. Answering a later question from JPMorgan, Staffieri said Rogers’ rural expansion is increasingly coming through its partnership with SpaceX.

ISED has blocked new licences and transfers in three band groups, including 2 GHz, since May 13, pending its rules review, and applications already filed for licences in the frozen bands are on hold until the review is complete. The consultation asks whether spectrum should be set aside for Canadian systems or whether Canadian networks should receive priority, and whether satellite operators serving Canada should cover the whole country. SpaceX told ISED it is “the only provider now delivering direct-to-device service in Canada.” ISED said stand-alone satellite 5G services could affect the structure of Canada’s telecommunications market, and the regulator will use consultation comments to determine if a fuller consultation is necessary.