Amazon takes on Starlink: new high-speed internet coming to Australia in NBN Co deal
Amazon’s Project Kuiper is set to arrive in Australia next year, promising speeds nearly double that of Elon Musk’s Starlink. Here’s what you need to know.
Amazon will launch its satellite broadband service, Project Kuiper, in Australia mid-next year, promising download speeds almost twice as fast as Elon Musk’s Starlink.
Government-owned NBN Co has selected Amazon over Starlink to replace its much-maligned Sky Muster service, with the telco declaring it a “major leap forward”.
Sky Muster uses higher orbiting satellites than Project Kuiper and Starlink, resulting in higher latency and slower speeds, which has frustrated customers across rural and regional Australia, with many branding the service unusable.
But Amazon aims to change that, offering speeds of about 400Mbps. This compares with Starlink offering speeds of up to 220Mbps, still 10 times faster than Sky Muster.
NBN Co will offer Project Kuiper to its customers on existing Sky Muster plans and launch it as a wholesale service to commercial telcos, with the aim of providing satellite broadband to 300,000 households.
Most of Australia’s commercial telcos have their own satellite deals with Starlink and other providers. But NBN chief executive Ellie Sweeney said the Amazon partnership will ensure the government-owned telco is “future-ready”.
“We plan to bring faster, lower-latency broadband to Australians living and working in regional, rural and remote areas, enabling their ongoing participation in the economy for work, study, telehealth, streaming entertainment, and connecting with family and friends,” Ms Sweeney said.
Lisa Scalpone, Project Kuiper’s head of worldwide consumer, said the NBN deal showed Amazon could be a “trusted partner”. The service initially aims to provide connectivity in areas that are “under-served” or where installing fast, reliable communications are too expensive.
“There is a relationship between population density and the cost of fibre deployments, especially with the NBN satellite customers, which are in pretty low population density areas, so the cost would be pretty extraordinary,” Ms Scalpone said.
“Since our satellite constellation is already up – it’s not purpose-built for Australia, but it’s global – the incremental cost to serve customers is super low.
“It really strengthens the liveability of rural areas because you now have the ability to stay connected.”
Pricing is yet to be disclosed, but Amazon has said it is focused on affordability, given that connectivity underpins its entire businesses – the more people who can shop online or stream music or video, the more money it makes.
“Making sure the customer can afford our products, and that it is a great customer experience, is still top of mind for us and everything we do,” Ms Scalpone said.
Amazon has about 78 satellites in its Project Kuiper constellation, with plans to deploy more than 3200.
Presently, it’s set-up is geared towards Australia’s lower latitudes, based on the orbits of the satellites that service the North American market.
Gavin Williams, NBN Co chief development officer for regional and remote, said Amazon has a “very aggressive program” to launch more satellites and the telco’s staff were working with the tech titan to ensure it delivers on its promises when it launches in about a year.
“You could imagine you’re launching satellites into that orbit, it’s going to take you a while. They go around the Earth every 90 minutes, so 25,000 kilometres an hour,” Mr Williams said. “You can still have a service, but you’re only getting it for about three minutes every 90 minutes.
“So what you need to do is fill that orbit with satellites such that you have continuous coverage, and then build more orbits such that you fill the nation. We’ll have an opportunity to pilot trial services ahead of what we consider to be an acceptable retail service.
“In a few small weeks, few short weeks, we intend to commence a consultation with retailers to ensure that we have a product available for launch that blows people’s minds and, very importantly, that we consult with regional stakeholders and communities to ensure that, for a start, the upgrade process from Sky Muster to NBN satellite with Amazon Kuiper is as smooth and effective as it can be.”
TPG chief executive Inaki Berroeta has struck deals with two satellite providers and said he was exploring other options. He was speaking on Tuesday after TPG finalised the sale of Vision Network – a competitor to the NBN – to Macquarie-backed Vocus for $4.7bn.
“We’ve been looking at satellite technology and satellite providers for a while now, we have already announced that we are working, in particular, with two of them. We are still open to look at other providers,” he said.
“I think that we’re still a bit early in the development of that technology, and as much as we think that this is a really solid solution for the future in terms of remote, geographical coverage, it’s a bit early, and we like to keep our options open. We always look at what’s there in the market and make sure that we choose whatever is going to provide a better service for our customers at a reasonable cost.”
