Rogers and Lynk's satellite-to-mobile call in Canada

Dec 18, 2023

Rogers and Lynk Global, Inc. have made history by successfully completing Canada's first satellite-to-mobile phone call using Samsung S22 smartphones. This achievement occurred in Heart's Content, a location known for hosting the world's first transatlantic telegraph cable between Canada and Ireland over 150 years ago.

This milestone also involved testing SMS, data, and emergency alerting services.

The significance of this accomplishment lies in its potential to enhance connectivity in Canada's most remote regions, including rural farming communities. The technology, which relies on Lynk's low-earth orbit (LEO) satellites and Rogers' national wireless spectrum, can close coverage gaps where traditional cellular wireless coverage is lacking.

One of the remarkable aspects of this technology is that it works seamlessly with existing smartphones, tablets, computers, and IoT devices. This versatility is particularly relevant for precision agriculture and data-driven farming practices, allowing farmers to harness the benefits of 5G technology for their operations.

Premier Andrew Furey of Newfoundland and Labrador participated in the first satellite-to-mobile call with a Search and Rescue volunteer, emphasizing the technology's potential for public safety. In a vast and largely rural province like Newfoundland and Labrador, improved connectivity can have a significant impact on emergency response and overall safety.

Rogers has ambitious plans for satellite-to-mobile phone technology, slated to launch in 2024. Initially, the service will encompass SMS texting, mass notifications, and machine-to-machine AI applications, with voice and data services to follow. This rollout aims to bring wireless services to some of Canada's most remote areas, including wilderness regions, national parks, and rural highways.

The partnership between Rogers and Lynk aligns with a commitment to improving public safety and connectivity for all Canadians, regardless of their location. It marks a crucial step toward bridging the digital divide and harnessing the potential of 5G technology for rural communities, including farmers who rely on data-driven insights for their agricultural practices.

In a rapidly evolving technological landscape, this achievement stands as a testament to the power of innovation and collaboration in expanding connectivity and advancing public safety across Canada's diverse and expansive terrain.

Video: The 15-Year Bet Behind Every New Variety!

Canada is trying to decide how much agricultural research capacity it can afford to lose. Brian Rossnagel believes the better question is whether the country can afford to rebuild it.

The longtime barley and oat breeder makes the case with a simple fact about his profession: the consequences of today’s decisions may not become visible for 10 or 15 years.

“Pick the right parents. That’s the biggest thing,” Rossnagel says. “If you pick the wrong parents, you’re not going to get anywhere—and you don’t know that until 10 years, 15 years later.”

That warning carries particular weight as Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada moves to reduce spending and streamline parts of its science operations. The department’s 2026–27 plan anticipates the loss of approximately 665 positions by 2028–29 and says some research will be reduced where capacity exists in academia or industry. AAFC says the changes will make its science operations more cost-effective over the long term.

For Canada’s seed industry, Rossnagel’s career illustrates what is at stake.

This fall, the retired University of Saskatchewan breeder will be inducted into the Canadian Agricultural Hall of Fame. During his 35-year career at the Crop Development Centre, he helped develop more than 100 barley and oat varieties, including CDC Austenson—one of Western Canada’s most widely grown feed barleys. His induction recognizes not only those varieties, but the collaboration and research system that made them possible.

Rossnagel is quick to emphasize that none of it was the work of one person.

“The first thing I thought about was all the other people who contributed to whatever success I and my program had over the years,” he says. “We know that it’s not an individual who does this. It’s a group—a team.”

That team extends well beyond the breeder whose name appears beside a variety. It includes technicians, pathologists, quality specialists, statisticians, regional testing sites, seed growers and industry partners. It also includes the breeders who came before and those who will carry the germplasm forward.

CDC Fraser barley, for example, moved through three breeding careers. Its parents came from Brian Harvey’s program. Rossnagel advanced the material after Harvey retired, and Aaron Beattie later guided it through registration and release.

That kind of handoff is normal in plant breeding. The person who makes the original cross may never see the resulting variety reach farmers.

It also explains why lost research capacity cannot simply be switched back on when budgets improve.

“If you shut it off, it’s very, very difficult—and particularly costly—to start it up again,” Rossnagel says. “If you have to start from scratch, it’s going to be at least 10 years before anybody notices whether you’re getting anything done or not.”

The concern is not simply how many experimental lines Canada can process. Modern equipment, statistical tools and genetic technologies allow today’s breeding programs to evaluate tens of thousands of lines—far more than Rossnagel could handle when he entered the field in the early 1970s.

But efficiency and automation do not generate every idea.

“If you pare back down, and instead of having six or seven individual scientists concentrating on wheat breeding, you go down and say three people could handle all this, well, that’s half the ideas gone,” he says. “Particularly if you happen to lose the three people who had the really neat and innovative ideas, boy, that’s a problem.”

It is a timely distinction for Canadian agriculture. Consolidating programs may preserve the volume of material moving through a system, at least initially. It may not preserve the diversity of thinking, regional knowledge or willingness to pursue unconventional crosses.

That regional knowledge matters because Canadian agriculture is not one uniform production environment. A variety suited to southern Alberta may face different disease, moisture and maturity pressures than one grown in Manitoba, Ontario or Atlantic Canada.

“Agriculture is applied biology,” Rossnagel says. “Biology, all around the Earth, moves from the poles to the equator. It does not move from Newfoundland to B.C. like politics do.”