TerreStar wants to build LEO network
February 9, 2026
TerreStar has enjoyed – and suffered – a somewhat chequered history. Formerly known as Motient Corp and American Mobile Satellite, it declared bankruptcy back in 2010. XM Satellite Radio (now incorporated into SiriusXM) was a spin-off from TerreStar.
The chair of the now Montreal-based business says that to compete with American giants, it intends to partner with other “middle power” countries to build a global direct-to-cell satellite network.
André Tremblay, Terrestar’s current chair and former CEO, said that the only way for countries without the scale of the US or China to compete and be globally relevant is by building interoperable, open networks rather than relying on “fragmented national one-offs.”
“We need to be able to link middle power to bridge enough strength to compete,” Tremblay said, referencing the speech recently given by Prime Minister Mark Carney at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
As to the old history, in October 2010 TerreStar filed for a ‘pre-pack’ exit from bankruptcy but went into bankruptcy in February 2011.
Reformed in 2013, today’s company was born from a restructuring of the original TerreStar. TerreStar’s mid-band spectrum investments cover every major domestic market, representing more than 3.3 Billion MHz-POPs of aggregate Radio Frequency (RF) resource. It controls one of the largest independent wireless spectrum holders in the US.
Charlie Ergen’s Dish Network majority owns the core assets of the former TerreStar Networks, having acquired them out of bankruptcy for approximately $1.37 billion in 2011, leveraging the company’s spectrum for its own services.
Now, Terrestar is hoping to raise about $500-million for the development of a low-Earth-orbit (LEO) to offer mobile cellphone services over satellite, a technology that would help to fill in Canada’s many cellphone dead zones where ground-based networks do not exist, with plans to launch test runs as early as next year, Trembley said.
Tremblay said the company is in discussions with potential partners in Scandinavia and other European markets, in an approach that includes collaboration with operators, technology vendors, integrators and satellite manufacturers across multiple jurisdictions.
“Global co-operation is the only structurally viable way to deliver competitive, resilient, and affordable direct‑to‑mobile services for Canadians over the long term,” he said.
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