Canada Investing $1 Million for Starlink Internet in Manitoba

The Canadian government is investing more than $1 million to offer SpaceX’s Starlink internet to 1,162 separate households in Manitoba, as detailed on Friday in a press release.

With $1,045,800 CAD going towards the project, the Rural Municipality of St. Laurent is set to reimburse households in the area for connecting to the satellite internet.

The move is through the Universal Broadband Fund’s (UBF’s) Rapid Response Stream, and is expected to help the remote region to connect to the internet.

Rural Economic Development Minister Gudie Hutchings said, “This investment will bring reliable, high-speed Internet access to up to 1,162 rural households in St. Laurent and surrounding areas, helping create jobs, improving access to health care and online learning services, and keeping people connected.”

Hutchings continued, “Since 2015, the Government of Canada has committed $7.2 billion to connect rural Canadians to better, faster Internet. We will continue making investments like these in rural and remote communities to help connect every single Canadian to high-speed Internet.”

SpaceX’s Starlink internet helps rural and remote communities access the internet using a low-Earth orbit satellite constellation that are in orbit around the globe.

Starlink also recently became available to 10,000 homes in rural Quebec, giving users in the province access to the low-Earth orbit satellite internet system.

SpaceX also launched a portable Starlink feature, letting users access their internet plans while out and about.