Editor,
I live just south of Meaford.
There is no cable service.
There is no fiber.
There is no 5G.
No provider has announced any offers for my location except Bruce Street Technologies. (My current provider). They currently offer Line of site WiFi. They want to bring in Fiber … maybe next year, but they are blocked by permitting and lack of responsiveness by Bell, Hydro One, etc. to locate existing in ground telephone and electrical services.
So.. I subscribed to Tesla Starlink to get decent internet speeds.
Rates are $100/mth unlimited data at speeds 10x faster than my current provider offerings.
At these speeds I can use, exclusively, streaming internet services and will drop Bell satellite tv. It is outrageously expensive at $112/month + taxes.
I just read that Ontario is partnering with Telesat ($110 million in investment).
The following comparison persuades me that Starlink is the better and maybe the more cost effective service (truth is Telesat is not advertising availability or costs).
https://circleid.com/posts/20210519-spacex-starlink-vs-telesat-lightspeed/
Telesat is not targeted at individual consumers like me.. they target businesses.
Their satellites orbit much farther out (2.5x further than Starlink) and will therefore have slower latency and upload/download speeds.. there is no mention of time frames of availability or costs.
The competition may help but Telesat investment may be a waste. I think you are once again betting on the wrong horse. And I am at least happy that you put no money into Bell or cable companies.. they are not at all interested in providing services to rural customers.
Dave MacDougall, Meaford
