The Ottawa-based firm expects a capital investment of US$5 billion in total for the initial 298 devices that will make up its Lightspeed satellite constellation, CEO Dan Goldberg said Tuesday. It plans to launch the first satellites in early 2023, and begin offering high-speed service to internet service providers and telecom firms in the second half of that year. (The Logic)

Talking point: Lightspeed—the name was unveiled Tuesday—is behind Telesat’s original schedule. On a November 2019 earnings call, Goldberg said the company expected to make a manufacturing decision in early 2020 and have 200 satellites in place in 2022. “We feel good about our schedule, and we feel good about when we’ll be coming to market,” Goldberg told reporters on Tuesday, while acknowledging the delay. Other low-Earth orbit networks like SpaceX’s Starlink and OneWeb will start offering internet services in Canada this year. But Telesat doesn’t sell to end users, and Goldberg said he’s “not particularly troubled” about coming in after, in part because Telesat’s home market is likely to account for a minority of revenue, it will serve a broad clientele including aviation, maritime and government clients.