MOUNTAIN VIEW COUNTY – County council has approved a plan to send a letter to the federal government regarding a proposed new satellite internet service for rural residents.
The move came at the recent regularly scheduled council meeting.
The county is calling on the federal government to expedite SpaceX's Starlink Low Earth Orbit Satellite Internet service application through the federal approvals process, Mountain View County Reeve Bruce Beattie said in a letter to Earl Dreeshen, the Member of Parliament for Red Deer-Mountain View.
Although the county is not taking a position on the future success of the Starlink satellite technology, it is calling for prompt approval of its service application.
“We are in the middle of one of the most difficult periods in our lifetimes,” said Beattie. “The pandemic has affected, and potentially permanently altered, the way we live and work.
"Rural Canadians urgently need improved internet service to meet the changing landscape. Bureaucratic red tape needs to give way to emergent needs.”
Often the choices available to those in rural settings are limited, or offer similar, poor service, Beattie wrote adding "The Starlink service
will allow more choice for rural residents."
The letter notes that while Starlink will offer similar connection speeds to those available in urban centers, its target is the underserved areas of Canada which Beattie points out includes areas in Mountain View County.
"For instance, 22 (kilometres) east of the Queen Elizabeth 2 highway in Mountain View County (an area with few hills and valleys), residents have poor cell service, and options for internet service are limited to high-latency satellite or spotty connectivity using cellular-based devices. None of the terrestrial internet service providers are able to provide service in this location."
The Starlink service has received some of the regulatory approvals from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission but addiitonal approvals are required.
Starlink Low Earth Orbit Satellite Internet service is expected to be available to Canadians in early 2021, which is also when the federal government has committed to making target broadband speeds available to at least 90 per cent of Canadians, Beattie noted in the letter.
