Vital new satellite capacity will be delivered to Canada’s north, including all 25 communities of Nunavut, following a partnership signed between SSi Canada, the developer-operator of QINIQ broadband and SSi Mobile services in Nunavut, and SES Networks.
This partnership comes at a critical time for Nunavut, with the COVID-19 crisis having led to an unprecedented need for reliable internet and mobile communications services as Nunavummiut move increasingly to study, work, and shop online and at home. With growing demand for QINIQ broadband and SSi Mobile services, all 25 communities in Nunavut – and elsewhere in Northern Canada – will benefit from SSi Canada’s multi-year agreement with SES Networks.
Under the new agreement announced today, SSi Canada will secure a significant increase in its satellite capacity, enhancing SSi’s ability to better serve consumers, students, government entities and businesses in Nunavut today and into the future. The new SES-SSi satellite footprint covers much more than Nunavut, enabling connectivity improvements across Canada.
“We are excited to partner with SES Networks to bring this much needed capacity to Canada’s North,” said Jeff Philipp, CEO and Founder of SSi. “As a global operator, SES Networks understands the challenges faced by underserved regions of the world and SSi’s ongoing commitment to overcome these challenges. SES Networks is certainly the right partner at the right time.”
“Thanks to timely regulatory approvals from the Canadian Government, we are now working hard to bring this new capacity online as quickly as possible,” said Philipp. “This is an essential step to ensure continuity of QINIQ broadband, and we look forward to expanding our network offerings and capabilities in the coming months and years as we work to deliver on the Government’s goal of broadband connectivity for every Canadian, no matter where they live.”
“For years we’ve been providing services to Northern Canada and know that the digital divide is challenging for people living in remote and rural areas,” said Omar Trujillo, Vice President of Sales, Fixed Data Americas at SES Networks. “Canada’s bold vision to connect every citizen to broadband this decade aligns with the innovative solutions SSi Canada has been providing to its customers for years. We are happy to bring our expertise of operating more than 70 geostationary and medium earth orbit satellites to help SSi Canada scale up their backbone, ensuring that the remote communities in Nunavut are at the forefront in achieving the 50/10 Mbps threshold.”