We’re working with Starlink to connect more people in remote Australia

Australia is a big place. We’ve got over 7.6 million square kilometers of land with 26 million of us spread across it – which creates a unique challenge in keeping all of us adequately connected – and means some of us can’t get the same quality connection of those in more metro areas.

To help provide additional solutions for these customers, we’re now working with Starlink to deliver Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite connectivity to provide voice and fixed broadband services in remote and hard to reach places.

In a world-first offering, Telstra will be able to provide home phone service and Starlink broadband services to Aussies as a bundle offer, as well as local tech support and the option of professional installation.

This agreement also provides connectivity options for our business customers, with a higher bandwidth business option available in areas without fixed and mobile connectivity. The business offer will be available to purchase from Telstra both locally and in select countries overseas.

We’re expecting to be able to offer this to customers and businesses towards the end of 2023, when we’ll also be able to share our unique pricing and plan details as well as how basic voice calls will work with our modem which will be offered with the service.

Our network currently uses a mix of technologies to provide voice and broadband services in rural and remote Australia, including nbn fixed broadband, our mobile network and older copper and radio networks.

The addition of Starlink will provide an additional connectivity option for people and businesses in rural and remote locations where distance and terrain make it difficult to provide quality connectivity with existing terrestrial networks.

One of the benefits of LEO satellites are that they are much closer than geostationary satellites to Earth with multiple satellites that are a part of a “constellation”, allowing them to send and receive signals much faster. As well as offering great data throughput, the proximity of these satellites reduces latency making them a great and more consistent option for services that need low latency, like voice and video calls.

The latency, download speeds and general experience in most circumstances will be far superior to copper-based ADSL and be better suited for most modern connectivity needs. Our team has been testing out in the field Starlink’s service and how we can best offer it to customers, including evolving our own modem specifically to support Starlink connectivity and Aussie households. We’re extremely excited to show you what this looks like later in the year.

We truly believe in improving connectivity for all Australians, regardless of where you live work and play. Adding LEO satellites as an option both for customers and to bolster our connectivity options in regional areas brings us a big leap closer to closing this digital divide.