Liberal politician says NBN isn’t good for games

A Liberal politician has said that the NBN’s satellite service in regional Australia is not good enough for gaming, pointing to Elon Musk’s Starlink as an alternative.

Liberal politicians have pointed to Elon Musk’s Starlink as an alternative to NBN’s satellite service, claiming that the service available to many in regional Australia isn’t good enough for games.

As reported by The Guardian, Liberal senator Hollie Hughes said in Senate estimates that her kids had never been able to play games, because NBN Co’s satellite network, Sky Muster, for regional Australia was inadequate.

“I lived on a property 80km west of Moree, and we had three internet services so that we could open emails,” Hughes said, “My kids had never had access to a video game because the Sky Muster absolutely provided no [bandwidth] at all for anything other than very basic access”.

Hughes pointed to Elon Musk’s Starlink as a better alternative for regional Australia, as it offers “huge bandwidth [and] speed”.

NBN Co’s regional and remote development manager Gavin Williams said that while the NBN’s satellite service was seeing improvements, it couldn’t be competitive with Starlink due to the positioning of the satellites. NBN satellites are 36,000 kilometres from earth, while Starlink uses low-orbit satellites that are much closer at just 550 kilometres.

Starlink’s low orbit satellites can often be seen in the night sky. Photo: Mariana SUAREZ / AFP

“Your kid’s keen on gaming?” Williams said, “By the time you’ve pressed the shoot-em-up button on Sky Muster that takes half a second to come up and down from space. That means for those time-sensitive games, it’s not appropriate”.

NBN Co plans to transition some of its satellite customers onto fixed wireless systems, which use mobile networks like 4G and 5G to deliver faster speeds and lower latency. While such systems can’t be compared to wired connections, and are much more susceptible to weather conditions and congestion, they can offer a stable connection in places where laying fibre or copper is impractical.

Liberal senator Hollie Hughes says she lives 80km west of Moree, in regional New South Wales. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

Politicians have become much more aware of the gaming space in recent years, as seen late last year when independent MP Andrew Wilkie took aim at video game loot boxes with a private member’s bill. The bill aimed to make games that contain loot boxes, a consumable virtual item that can be purchased to receive a randomised item in a game, receive an R18+ classification.

The Albanese Government also introduced a new tax bill that included a tax offset for game developers, who welcomed the new legislation. The Digital Games Tax Offset offers developers working on projects costing $500,000 or more a 30% tax offset.

Written by Oliver Brandt on behalf of GLHF.