The Globe and Mail reports in its Saturday edition that satellite operator Telesat's stock price soared on Friday after it announced that it is switching to MDA as the key supplier for its Lightspeed constellation, allowing the Ottawa-based company to shave $2-billion from its planned capital expenditures (all figures U.S.). The Globe's Alexandra Posadzki writes that the project, which will beam Internet to remote areas from a constellation of 198 low-Earth-orbit satellites, was initially forecast to cost $5-billion, but the effort hit a snag when inflation and pandemic-related supply chain issues increased the expected cost to $5.5-billion. The company had originally intended to have the satellites built by French-Italian aerospace manufacturer Thales Alenia Space. At the time, the plan was for the constellation to consist of 298 of them, but Telesat announced last year that it was reducing that number by 100. MDA, a Brampton, Ont., space equipment company that created the Canadarm, was to manufacture what are known as phased array antennas for the project. It will now be building the entire constellation, including improved digital antennas. Telesat closed at $17.48 (Canadian) Friday, up 53 per cent in Toronto.