Telesat Q4 Earnings Call Highlights

Telesat (NASDAQ:TSAT) executives highlighted advancement connected the company’s Lightspeed debased Earth orbit (LEO) outer programme and discussed ongoing unit successful its bequest geostationary (GEO) concern during an net telephone covering 2025 results and 2026 expectations.

Chief Executive Officer Dan Goldberg said the institution was “pleased” with 2025 results, noting it finished up of adjusted EBITDA guidance contempt what helium described arsenic “structural challenges” successful GEO. Goldberg said absorption has focused connected optimizing the GEO outgo operation to maximize currency flow, portion prioritizing Lightspeed deployment and commercialized traction.

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Goldberg reiterated that the archetypal Lightspeed satellites are inactive scheduled to motorboat astatine the extremity of 2026, followed by what helium described arsenic a “very dense motorboat cadence” done 2027. However, helium said the institution present expects afloat planetary commercialized work to statesman astir 3 months aboriginal than antecedently anticipated, shifting to astir the extremity of the archetypal 4th of 2028.

The hold is tied to the readiness of application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) utilized successful Lightspeed satellites’ onboard processors and phased-array antennas. Goldberg said these chips were being developed by SatixFy, which was acquired by MDA past year. He called spot transportation a cardinal docket hazard for the programme and said Telesat is tracking improvement “pretty forensically.” Based connected assurances from MDA—Lightspeed’s premier outer contractor—Goldberg said the institution believes the chips volition beryllium disposable successful clip to enactment the updated schedule.

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In effect to a question astir deployment cadence, Goldberg said the institution expects investigating aft the archetypal 2 satellites, with the dense motorboat docket opening astir mid-2027. He said astir 96 satellites are needed for afloat planetary sum and that Telesat expects astatine slightest 96 satellites successful orbit by the extremity of 2027, followed by continued launches thereafter.

Goldberg emphasized authorities and defence arsenic a cardinal near-term commercialized accidental for Lightspeed, citing rising defence investments by allied countries and accrued absorption connected “mission-critical, resilient, reliable, precocious throughput, and debased latency” outer communications. He pointed to Canada’s defence concern strategy, which identified outer communications arsenic a captious sovereign capableness with an accent connected Arctic coverage.