The skyline of Taipei in September, 2022. Telesat is among the foreign companies talking to Taipei about offering satellite internet services, according to two sources familiar with the matter.Ann Wang/Reuters
Canadian satellite operator Telesat TSAT-T is pitching Taiwan on its planned low-Earth-orbit internet service as the Asian democracy looks for partners to develop backup communications systems in case of military conflict, sources say.
Taiwan is brokering deals for access to satellite internet systems so it can maintain contact with the outside world if war disrupts the 15 undersea telecommunications cables that connect it with other countries. These cables transmit everything from phone calls to videoconferencing to e-mails.
Since 2018, China has staged more than 10 military exercises around Taiwan, in an effort to intimidate the self-governed island that Beijing wants to annex. The Chinese Communist Party, which has never ruled Taiwan, considers the island a breakaway province and has not excluded the option of using force to take it. The U.S. military has repeatedly said it believes China aims to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027.
Telesat is among the foreign companies talking to Taipei about offering satellite internet services, according to two sources familiar with the matter. The Globe and Mail is not identifying them because they are not authorized to speak publicly about it.
Last year, Glenn Katz, Telesat’s chief commercial officer, visited Taiwan to talk up the company’s Lightspeed constellation project. Local media reported he met with the Taiwan Space Agency, the National Science and Technology Council and the Ministry of Digital Affairs, among others.
Telesat declined to speak to its plans for Taiwan.
“It is Telesat’s policy to not comment on any specific discussions we may be having with any potential or existing customers,” Stephen Hampton, the company’s head of public policy, strategic accounts and business development, said in a statement.
He said the company’s low-Earth-orbit (LEO) project is fielding significant interest globally.
“Given the heightened demand from governments for high throughput, affordable, secure and resilient broadband connectivity, government entities around the world are interested in leveraging Telesat Lightspeed.”
Taiwan’s top envoy to Ottawa, Harry Tseng, said he would be pleased if an agreement could be reached between Telesat and Taipei during his tenure in Canada. He said it would be a continuing business relationship. “This is not a one-time deal,” Mr. Tseng said. The requirement for upkeep of the system would continue for decades, he said.
Taiwan last year got a taste of how severed undersea communication cables could disrupt its ability to talk to the world.
In February, 2023, both submarine cables connecting Taiwan’s far-flung Matsu Islands to the internet were cut, reportedly by Chinese vessels, within a week of each other. The islands, the closest of which is nine kilometres from China, were reportedly without regular internet for 50 days, having to make do with extremely limited service via microwave radio transmitter until a specialized repair ship could arrive to fix the links.
Shen Ming-shih, a research fellow and director at the Institute for National Defence and Security Research (INDSR), a think tank funded by the Taiwanese government, said there’s no evidence available to determine whether the Matsu cable cuts were something more than an accident. “If China or the People’s Liberation Army want to do something, they will make it look like accident.”
Yisuo Tzeng, an associate research fellow at INDSR, said Ukraine’s success in rallying allies through teleconferencing appeals to assist its defence against Russia’s 2022 military assault spurred Taiwan to speed up plans for a backup internet.
Early in the attack from Moscow, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky used his still-intact communications infrastructure to ask world leaders for aid. Information, he later told Canadian university students during a 2022 video-link discussion, can land a “bigger blow than some types of weapons.” The internet, he said, “is a kind of weapon because we can show what’s going on.”
Mr. Tzeng said Taiwan needs multiple options to preserve its digital lifeline to the world in the event of a conflict. “It’s very likely that China will try every effort to cut our links to external communication,” he said.
He said it would make sense in an attack for Beijing to destroy the submarine cable-landing stations across Taiwan where undersea connections come ashore.
Satellite operators from Canada, Britain and the United States offer Taiwan the opportunity to reinforce its communications. “This is about resilience and when it comes to resilience, you’ve got to have redundancy – including maybe backups outside your territory – so these are the backup options under consideration,” Mr. Tzeng said.
Taiwan has vowed to construct its own satellite network and so far, its largest telecommunications company, Chunghwa Telecom Co., has signed an agreement with Britain-based Eutelsat OneWeb for low-Earth-orbit satellite service.
Billionaire Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite service, a division of his U.S.-based SpaceX aerospace company, does not currently operate in Taiwan.
The Wall Street Journal reported last week, citing unidentified sources, that Russian President Vladimir Putin has been in regular conversation with Mr. Musk since late 2022, and had asked him to avoid activating Starlink over Taiwan as a favour to Chinese President Xi Jinping. Mr. Musk has significant business interests in China including a Tesla Motors factory.
Mr. Musk’s SpaceX later posted a statement on X calling the Journal story misleading and saying Starlink doesn’t operate in Taiwan because it lacks a licence there. It said Taiwan wouldn’t budge on a requirement that a local Taiwanese partner must hold a majority stake in any joint venture with a foreign company. “SpaceX has not accepted such a condition for any market in which it operates.”