Telesat’s headquarters in downtown Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Photo: Telesat

Telesat saw a 30% revenue decline in the second quarter of 2025 with its GEO business, while the operator is working on opportunities for its upcoming LEO constellation, particularly in aero and government. 

CEO Dan Goldberg told investors on Wednesday that Telesat is making progress on the development of the satellites, ground infrastructure, and software for Lightspeed, with particular interest from customers in the aero and government sectors. 

Aero has the most “concrete” opportunities right now because of the longer timelines involved to equip planes, Goldberg said, with Lightspeed targeted to enter service late in 2027. He mentioned progress on the user terminal front. 

“We expect all of our user terminals whether they are flat panel user terminals or community aggregator applications, will be available in advance of our entry into commercial service,” Goldberg said. “We always expected there would be good developments on the user terminal front in respect to flat panel antennas and that is very much materializing. 

In terms of government opportunities, Goldberg said Lightspeed is “very well positioned to meet the [Canadian] government’s requirements in terms of Northern sovereignty, NORAD modernization, making capabilities available to their allies.” 

Telesat is “watching” potential Golden Dome opportunities in the U.S. and the operator is making sure that decision-makers are aware of Lightspeed’s capabilities, Goldberg added.  

“[Golden Dome] looks like it will be a network of networks, and that space-based architectures at various orbits will form an important part of Golden Dome. Whether Canada participates or not, I think is still an open question,” he said. “I believe that Lightspeed, given its capabilities, given the orbit that we’re flying at around 1300 kilometers — yes, I think that Lightspeed could make valuable contributions.”

In the second quarter, Telesat reported revenue of $106 million Canadian dollars ($77 million), down 30% year-over-year, primarily due to lower revenues from Dish Network on the Nimiq 5 contract. Lower revenue was also due to reduction in service to an Indonesian rural broadband program, lower LEO consulting revenues, and lower revenue from broadcast customer Shaw, now part of Rogers. 

Goldberg also told investors he does not expect Canadian DTH customer Bell to renew its contract on the Nimiq 4 satellite, which has been in service for nearly 17 years and has about one year left of expected life. Bell is expected to consolidate activities on the Nimiq 6 satellite when the contract is up for renewal in October.