In a move to penetrate Telesat’s stronghold on the Canadian satellite industry and make a bid for the two remaining satellite positions, Richard Stursberg and NB Capital Partners are launching a new Canadian-owned and controlled satellite company.

Bird Satellite, led by Stursberg as president and CEO, has filed an application to Industry Canada seeking authority to launch and operate two communications satellites for the sake of bridging the ‘digital divide’ and providing Internet access to even the most remote locales in Canada.

‘While Star Choice and Bell ExpressVu created DTH TV, we’re doing DTH high-speed, two-way Internet,’ says Stursberg, the former president and CEO of Cancom and Star Choice. ‘We want to expand high-speed service to every area across the country, places where people can’t get access from cable or telephone.’

At the moment, three million Canadian homes and businesses have no access to high-speed Internet services.

‘We also want to break the last remaining telecommunications monopoly in the country,’ says Stursberg.

In 1991, the federal government sold its 53% stake in Telesat Canada to a consortium of telephone companies, along with Spar Aerospace. The other telephone companies later sold their positions, leaving Telesat owned and controlled by BCE.

If Bird’s proposal is approved, the new company expects to invest an estimated $1 billion in the Canadian telecommunications industry, including a commitment of roughly $100 million over the life of the project to advance tele-health and tele-education services for remote and underserved areas of Canada. The benefits will be defined through consultations with groups in the North, including hospitals, educational institutions, First Nations and other communities.

NB Capital is the former senior manager of Cancom and an international satellite partner.

Bird was set up in response to the Industry Canada’s stated goal to bridge the digital divide and initiate a process to assign one of the last two remaining satellite orbital positions using competitive bids – until now Telesat has been assigned all of Canada’s satellite positions.

The U.S. saw the introduction of two-way high-speed Internet access via satellite across all markets in late 2000.

Meantime, commercial satellite operator Telesat Canada has also tabled two proposals with the Canadian government to design, build and launch two new satellites that it’s claiming will help catapult Canada to the forefront of the world’s Internet economy.

Under Telesat’s proposal, one satellite would provide new capacity for broadcasting and telecommunication services, while the other would carry advanced multimedia services to individuals and public institutions in Canada, including those in remote and underserved areas.

In the last two years, Telesat has launched Nimiq, Canada’s first direct-broadcast satellite, and Anik F1, the first Canadian satellite to cover both North and South America.

The company’s latest proposal is supported by myriad media outlets including Cancom, Chum Television and Astral Media. *