Spotlight: Telesat Establishes U.S. Hub Near Detroit

Telesat, an Ottawa, Canada-based satellite services subsidiary of BCE [NYSE: BCE], is expanding its operations in the United States, choosing metropolitan Detroit as its new U.S. hub.

The company is leasing a new 12,000-square-foot facility in Macomb, Mich., roughly 23 miles north of Detroit and three-and-a-half hours away by car from Telesat’s operations center northwest of Toronto. Growing demand for its services also is spurring Telesat to recruit, hire and train 600-plus U.S. field service contractors.

The five-year lease signed by Telesat to use the Macomb facility includes options to extend its stay and potentially erect a teleport, said Pat Enright, Telesat’s vice president of network services.

The facility will host training, engineering functions and logistics operations for Telesat’s U.S. customers. Eleven permanent Telesat staffers will be employed at the Macomb facility, while part-time contractors will help Telesat maintain its remote VSAT (very small aperture terminal) sites. Telesat operates 14,000 remote VSAT locations throughout the United States and serves a host of U.S. clients that include Ford Motor Co. [NYSE: F] –Paul Dykewicz

(Pat Enright, Telesat, 519/370-2480; Melissa Chang, Argyle Rowland Communications, 416/968-7311)