Starlink on the Up Down Underneath

We have coated 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 Client 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 in the beginning of 2025.

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

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 targeted on serving “low and distant density areas” however, having progressively enhanced protection all through 2022, in November that yr 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 out there pace for $150 a month. The height obtain price’s presently marketed as as much as 350Mbps, with uploads capped at 40Mbps on all plans. All residential tariffs embrace an infinite obtain allowance.

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

There’s an extra $549 ($392) cost for {hardware}, although the operator does run occasional promotions the place gear is obtainable totally free.

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 hard and fast voice service coupled with Starlink broadband companies to Australians as a bundle provide, whereas providing native tech assist and the choice {of professional} set up.

Telstra mentioned the settlement with Starlink would offer “an extra connectivity choice for folks and companies in rural and distant areas the place distance and terrain make it troublesome to succeed in with present networks”.

Telstra finally confirmed the industrial 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 provider, Optus, strike a deal to ship cell connectivity utilizing the previous’s satellite tv for pc constellation, with a view to extending protection to “100% of Australia”.

Via its settlement with SpaceX, Optus mentioned it will work to develop the attain of consumers’ cell connectivity to incorporate the 60% of Australia’s territory missing cell 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 comply with 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 industrial launch of the know-how was confirmed in June that yr.

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

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