Elon Musk's company SpaceX applies to offer high-speed internet service to Canadians
Elon Musk's SpaceX has applied to offer high-speed internet to Canadians living in remote areas by beaming it to them via satellites.
The Globe and Mail newspaper first reported that space exploration company SpaceX applied with Canada's telecom regulator, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), for what's known as a Basic International Telecommunications Services, or BITS, licence.
That's a requirement for any company that wants to offer what the CRTC calls "telecommunications traffic between Canada and any other country."
If they are successful in getting a BITS licence, that means SpaceX — whose formal company name is Space Exploration Technologies Corp. — could theoretically try to offer more wireless telecom services down the line, such as voice and data plans. But for now, the application focuses on high-speed internet, beamed directly into rural homes and businesses via the company's existing network of so-called near-Earth satellites.
Canada is far from the only place SpaceX is trying to offer internet service. The company is planning to offer high-speed internet services in the United States later this year through a subsidiary known as Starlink before "rapidly expanding to near global coverage of the populated world by 2021," the company says on its website.