Starlink on the Up Down Below

We have lined Starlink’s enlargement in rural localities throughout Oceania, Africa, and Latin America—and now Starlink-enabled connectivity is booming throughout Australia too.

Starlink—the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite tv for pc broadband operation of US-based SpaceX—has handed the milestone of half 1,000,000 subscriptions in Australia. In keeping with a report from the Australian Competitors and Shopper Fee (ACCC), on the finish of 2025 Starlink had 552,000 subscriptions throughout Australia, up from 375,000 six months earlier than and 297,000 initially of 2025.

Let’s check out this rise of Starlink Down Below, powered by TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database staff.

A historical past of Starlink in Australia

Elon Musk’s SpaceX launched Starlink in Australia in April 2021, providing a trial model of its service in northern Victoria and southern New South Wales (NSW). Within the following months, it initially centered on serving “low and distant density areas” however, having progressively enhanced protection all through 2022, in November that 12 months the operator was reported to have achieved nationwide protection.

As of June 2026, Starlink has three core tariffs for residential customers, providing obtain charges as much as 100Mbps for $75 ($53.60) a month, as much as 200Mbps for $110 a month, and as much as the utmost obtainable pace for $150 a month. The height obtain fee’s at present marketed as as much as 350Mbps, with uploads capped at 40Mbps on all plans. All residential tariffs embrace a limiteless obtain allowance.

As well as, its Roam service—geared toward RVs, campers and dealing on the go—can be utilized in over 150 international locations and is priced at $85 per 30 days for 100GB of month-to-month bandwidth, or $210 for a limiteless service.

There’s a further $549 ($392) cost for {hardware}, although the operator does run occasional promotions the place tools is obtainable without cost.

Starlink’s partnership with Telstra

Two notable offers had been introduced in July 2023, with the primary of those being between Starlink and Telstra. As per the settlement between the pair, Telstra revealed it will present a set voice service coupled with Starlink broadband companies to Australians as a bundle provide, whereas providing native tech help and the choice {of professional} set up.

Telstra mentioned the settlement with Starlink would supply “a further connectivity choice for individuals and companies in rural and distant places the place distance and terrain make it tough to achieve with current networks”.

Telstra ultimately confirmed the business launch of this fastened broadband service in April 2024.

Starlink and Optus settlement

In the meantime, July 2023 additionally noticed Starlink and one other Australian service, Optus, strike a deal to ship cellular connectivity utilizing the previous’s satellite tv for pc constellation, with a view to extending protection to “100% of Australia”.

By means of its settlement with SpaceX, Optus mentioned it will work to broaden the attain of shoppers’ cellular connectivity to incorporate the 60% of Australia’s territory missing cellular protection, with this to be achieved via a phased rollout of SpaceX’s satellite tv for pc functionality, beginning with SMS in 2024, and with voice and information companies to observe within the second half of 2025.

Optus was overwhelmed to the punch, although. In January 2025 Telstra and Starlink unveiled their very own plans to collaborate on bringing satellite-to-mobile direct-to-cell (D2C) textual content messaging to Telstra prospects and a business launch of the expertise was confirmed in June that 12 months.

In the meantime, Optus admitted in early 2025 that its schedule for the launch of D2C companies had slipped and a launch continues to be to happen.

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