So, yes, we’ve identified the landing stations, where we need to go. I think we’ll be in good shape there.
Chris Quilty: Would you be interested in buying a Starlink optical crosslink?
Daniel Goldberg: You know what – it’s an interesting question, and I’ll share with you that we haven’t had any conversations with Starlink about that. You know, there are probably pros and cons of doing something like that. Pros being SpaceX is building lots of them. And it would allow us to theoretically interconnect with their constellation, although they’re flying lower than we are. So, where we do interconnect with those guys, probably do that in RF rather than optical. I’m not sure that the Starlink optical link is SDA compliant. That would have to be something that we would take into consideration. There are a number of good OISL, Optical Inter-Satellite Link providers out there with heritage and the like. So anyway, stay tuned on that.
We’ve. We’ve announced a good many of our suppliers, including MDA and SpaceX. We announced Aalyria working with us on some of the software that’s going to orchestrate the constellation. And as we work with MDA and pick that kind of next-level supply chain, folks will learn more about the maybe different component parts of the network.
Chris Quilty: Great. Final question. Nimiq 5, was that a one-year or a multi-year contract?
Daniel Goldberg: Nimiq 5, well —
Chris Quilty: Is it coming up for renewal?
Daniel Goldberg: Yes, it’s coming up for renewal. So, you know, so it hasn’t been renewed yet. We’ve started having conversations with EchoStar about it. But it, you know, it was a 15-year agreement that comes up in October of this year, so stay tuned on that.
Chris Quilty: Got you.
Daniel Goldberg: Thanks, Chris.
Chris Quilty: Thank you.
Operator: Thank you. And the next question is from Mr. Arun Seshadri from BNP Paribas. Your line is now open.
Arun Seshadri: Yes. Hi. Thanks for taking my questions. First from me, I noticed this word, like in your funding conditionality, that the program is fully funded to global service delivery subject to certain conditions. If you kind of outline what those conditions are, would be helpful. And then separately, on the funding plan itself, clearly strong support from the Government of Canada around the $750 million reduction and being cheaper today. Can you sort of tell us how you calculate that $750 million? So we just understand the puts and takes there?
Daniel Goldberg: Yes. We have, Andrew, do you want to start with that? And then I’ll maybe talk about what, some of the conditionality?
Andrew Browne: Yes, absolutely. You know, as you know, that we were initially dealing with sort of palace and dealing with the export credit agencies. And I have to say the export credit agencies are not necessarily cheap, right? And they have a lot of fees, a lot of upfront fees and premiums. And so when you calculate, you know, the arrangements that we have come with the – with the Canadian government, and you do the math, basically that it just falls out of the equation. It’s $750 million cheaper.
Daniel Goldberg: And over to me on conditionality, I mean, so I’ve got to be definitely careful here. My General Counsel is sitting across the table for me. So what would I say on the conditionality that doesn’t make my GCI rate? I guess I’d say, you know, the conditionality, it’s kind of typical stuff with any funding agreement, right? So we have to enter into definitive agreements. We’ve got multiple funding sources. Each funding source needs to make sure that the other one is there and it’s got, you know, and that in the aggregate we have sufficient cash to “fully fund the program”. So it’s that kind of stuff. As you can see, I’m a big believer in action, speaking louder than words. We’re confident we’ve got the financing in place that we need to move our project forward, which is why we’re hiring all these people and spending all this money and entering into all these contracts.
But that’s when we referenced it. We’re kept on a tight leash here by our legal department. And so it was mostly just to be just careful to say, yes, we still need to get those definitive agreements in place and the like.
Daniel Goldberg: And I would think, I would just add further that we’ve got contingency, you know, as we mentioned, a $400 million also within our program.
Arun Seshadri: Got it. No, that’s helpful. On that – on the original, the $750 million plan, the reduction. So obviously, understand, Andrew, that the export agencies are not necessarily that cheap, but just in terms of the assumptions in that $750 million, is that just, you know, kind of over the total, the debt costs over a certain period of time that are – that it’s lower by. Like, can you just share those assumptions in advance of the disclosure that’s going to come out tonight?
Daniel Goldberg: Yes, I’ll take that. I mean, fundamentally, yes, like we’ve stared at what were our total cost of borrowings under the original plan with another vendor and what it is now. We took everything into account. We took into account what the total CapEx and other costs of the original program were versus the new one. We took into account what our expected cost of borrowings would be over the life of the funding commitments, right? So the interest rate, any other, and this is relevant for the export of credit agencies premium and stuff like that, that you have to pay. And then we compared that to what our expectations are will be our cost of borrowings for what I’ll call the new and improved approach. And yes, that’s the math we did the $750 million savings over the course of the program.
And it’s my expectation that in the near term, we’ll provide some additional details around our funding terms and it’ll allow folks to kind of, make their own calculations about what our cost of borrowings are.
