N.W.T. considers Starlink alternative, but some residents say it's just not as good

The Government of the Northwest Territories is assessing alternatives to Starlink — the American satellite technology that allows users to access high-speed internet from rural and remote locations — but locals say the territory's only option won't work. 

Starlink is run by SpaceX and owned by mogul Elon Musk, now a senior advisor to the U.S. president. Some governments are ending their Starlink contracts as Canada fights a trade war with the United States, and N.W.T. Premier R.J. Simpson said the territory is looking to follow suit. 

In the 2024/25 fiscal year the territorial government spent over $400,000 on Starlink, using the technology to support road crews and emergency responders across departments.  

But the territory is looking at only one alternative, U.K.-based Eutelsat OneWeb — and some N.W.T. providers say the company is too expensive and not as good as Starlink. 

Tom Zubko, owner of Inuvik internet service provider New North Network, said his company experimented with OneWeb during internet outages in the 2023 wildfires.

"It was not spectacular," he said. 

Zubko said the connectivity was not as good, and it was also significantly more expensive. 

"Certainly unsustainable," he said, though he wasn't sure of the actual figures. 

OneWeb uses low-earth orbit satellites — the same technology as Starlink — and describes itself as working to close the digital divide and support hard-to-reach communities that don't have internet access through terrestrial connection like fibre cables. On its website, the company says it strives to do that sustainably, treating space as a shared resource. 

"We do not want to borrow from the future to provide for the present," the site reads.

Through Northwestel, OneWeb is already in eight N.W.T. communities not connected to fibre links or cables. Northwestel calls these communities "satellite communities."

But while Starlink has over 6,000 orbiting satellites, OneWeb has about 600 and users say the connection just isn't as reliable. 

Colville Lake is one of the eight satellite communities using OneWeb. Resident David Codzi says most residents still opt for Starlink. 

"Before all this politics happened, it was a good thing," he said.