US firm EchoStar has rocket-launched its new XVII satellite into geostationary orbit above earth, providing faster internet speeds for Canada.

The Ka-band satellite is expected to be ready for commercial operation this autumn, whereupon it will increase broadband speeds and quality for customers of the EchoStar-owned ISP HughesNet, especially those located in rural areas of Canada.

Once the new satellite is online, it is expected to increase downstream connection speeds to more than 10Mbps – a significant bump from the standard HughesNet service available today of 1-2Mbps.

However, this increase in speeds is likely to make the ISPs low service usage caps even more restrictive for its 1.5 million customers, who must currently observe a daily cap of 450MB, even on the highest service tier.