Tesla has applied for a telecommunications license in Canada, where the Model 3 was the best-selling electric vehicle (EV) in seven different provinces during the first eight months of 2022.
On September 15, the all-electric automaker filed an application with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to acquire a Basic International Telecommunications Service (BITS) license (via mobilesyrup).
A BITS licence grants its holder permission to transmit telecommunications traffic between Canada and any other country.
“Tesla does not, and does not intend to, own or operate transmission facilities in Canada,” the company said in its filing. Instead, Tesla is seeking the license to provide cellular data service for in-vehicle infotainment, internet access, and “mobile terminating SMS to wake up vehicles.”
Could this have something to do with Tesla’s Premium Connectivity service? The company currently uses AT&T roaming to provide Premium Connectivity in Canada, but it might eventually start leveraging SpaceX’s Starlink service for in-vehicle connectivity. Canadians are able to access a U.S. Netflix library due to the AT&T data service in Canada.
Tesla’s application for a BITS license is open for comments on the CRTC’s website until December 2.
The U.S.-based automaker is slowly but surely increasing its footprint in Canada. Tesla already has a battery research facility in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and the company announced a new manufacturing facility in Markham, Ontario, around this time last year.
