Ongoing geopolitical tensions between Canada and the U.S. put Starlink in the crosshairs, potentially impacting two million Canadians.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford threatened to cancel the government’s $100 million Starlink deal with the satellite internet service operated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, but paused retaliatory measures against the U.S. amid the Canadian and U.S. government’s agreement to pause tariffs against one another for 30 days.
While the Ontario Starlink deal was only to connect up to 15,000 homes in rural and remote communities, the potential cancellation has us wondering what would happen if a wider retaliatory action resulted in a nationwide ban or cancellation of Starlink. Ookla, known for its global broadband speed tests, sought to answer just that question with research on what would happen if Starlink were cancelled in Ontario and other parts of Canada.
The graph shows Ookla’s number based on the share of Speedtests Canadians performed using Starlink and which provinces the Speedtests were performed in and when Starlink was introduced in the province.
According to Ookla’s Speedtest Intelligence data of Starlink users in Canada, roughly two million Canadians would feel the effect of Starlink’s disappearance. Ookla extrapolated the number based on the share of Speedtests Canadians performed using Starlink.
This would highly affect people in Nunavut, where 44 per cent of Speedtests were performed using Starlink, indicating a significant portion of internet users rely on the service. Following that, many people in the Northwest Territories and Yukon could also lose access to the internet.
When Doug Ford threatened to pause its Starlink deal in Ontario, it seemed it would only affect around 4.9 per cent of internet users in the province. This makes sense, as most of Ontario’s population lives in urban areas like Toronto. However, if the whole country banned Starlink, many in rural areas would suffer. And potentially more than we realize.
Update Feb. 21 at 11:21 a.m. EST: Added clarification that the Ontario Starlink deal would impact a smaller number of Canadians than a hypothetical Canada-wide cancellation or ban.