Canada Confirms Plan to Diversify Away From Musk's Starlink

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has confirmed that Ottawa will move away from Elon Musk's Starlink satellite internet service, part of a broader push to cut the country's reliance on U.S. defense and technology suppliers.

What Carney said

In an interview with the New York Times published Wednesday, Carney said Canada will move away from Musk's satellite internet service, framing the shift as part of a wider push to cut Canada's economic and strategic dependence on the United States.

The prime minister pointed to Starlink previously showing bias in a global conflict scenario, alluding to service disruptions and the selective limiting of data in Ukraine.

The Telesat Lightspeed pivot

Carney suggested Canada could work with European and Korean partners to build enough scale. The domestic alternative in focus is Telesat's Lightspeed low-Earth-orbit constellation.

Ottawa has committed $1.44 billion in loans and equity to Lightspeed, and a $2.3 billion defence contract signed in August added 69 more satellites, bringing the planned network to 225. U.S. investor MHR Fund Management owns 35.5% of Telesat, while SpaceX is contracted to carry out the 14 Falcon 9 launches required to deploy the constellation.

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Why this matters for the market

Canada is not a small market for Starlink. Starlink currently has more than 500,000 Canadian users. Losing government and provincial contracts, plus consumer share, hits SpaceX's second-largest market outside the U.S.

The first Lightspeed launches are not expected until 2026, with global service targeted for early 2028, and until then it remains unclear what service would replace Starlink for Canadian customers. That gap is where European rivals like Eutelsat OneWeb come in.

Not the first crack in the relationship

Ontario has previously moved away from Starlink, with Doug Ford's government cancelling its $100 million Starlink deal in March 2025 over U.S. tariffs.

Eutelsat, a company largely owned by the French and U.K. governments, is offering Canada an alternative to Musk's Starlink satellite broadband in the Far North, saying it can create secure channels that cannot be disconnected for “political” reasons.

Options market and stocks to watch

Watch TSLA for any spillover sentiment on Musk-linked names, given SpaceX is private but Tesla often trades on Musk-related political headlines.

Watch GSAT and other satellite-communications names for flow tied to the LEO competitive landscape.

Watch IRDM as an incumbent satellite operator with government exposure that could benefit from diversification themes.

Watch VSAT for reaction as governments explore non-Starlink providers for connectivity contracts.

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