{"id":49297,"date":"2025-08-07T02:17:06","date_gmt":"2025-08-07T02:17:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/49297\/"},"modified":"2025-08-07T02:17:06","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T02:17:06","slug":"hopes-joint-nbn-co-amazon-satellite-internet-will-transform-remote-connectivity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/49297\/","title":{"rendered":"Hopes joint NBN Co\u2013Amazon satellite internet will transform remote connectivity"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australia is set to get another satellite internet provider in 2026, giving SpaceX’s Starlink some long-awaited competition.<\/p>\n

Government-owned NBN Co has partnered with Amazon to roll out high-speed broadband using 3,200 low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites from Amazon’s Project Kuiper.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Reliable connectivity in the bush is essential for emergency services. (ABC Midwest and Wheatbelt: Chris Lewis)<\/p>\n

Starlink already has about 7,000 operational satellites providing internet to remote parts of the country.<\/p>\n

With Amazon entering the game, there will soon be more than 10,000 LEO satellites focused on delivering high-speed internet \u2014 and that is not counting all the other satellites in orbit.<\/p>\n

The new service is expected to launch in 2026, and NBN Co says it will offer a major upgrade in speed and reliability for people currently using its satellite network.<\/p>\n

Since Sky Muster launched in 2015, ongoing issues with its reliability and performance prompted many internet users to switch to Starlink<\/a>, which quickly became a popular provider thanks to its LEO satellites.<\/p>\n

The transition from Sky Muster to LEO satellites has sparked hopes that a bit of competition might finally benefit regional users.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Amazon’s KA-01 mission launch earlier this year. (Supplied: Amazon Project Kuiper)<\/p>\n

NBN Co’s chief development officer for regional and remote services, Gavin Williams, said the partnership would benefit new and existing customers.<\/p>\n

He said the new venture with Amazon would replace NBN’s Sky Muster, which is currently just two satellites 36,000 kilometres into space.<\/p>\n

“The Kuiper constellation will be 3,200 satellites, so a lot more satellites, and in round numbers will be around 600 kilometres from Earth,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"Satellites<\/p>\n

Amazon has built ground stations that will connect customers’ outdoor boxes with satellites. (Supplied: NBN Co)<\/p>\n

Mr Williams said this would greatly increase the speed of the internet for up to 300,000 customers.<\/p>\n

“In an online world, the imperatives and significance of fast and reliable broadband in remote parts of the country [is vital],” he said.<\/p>\n

“If your home-based classroom’s offline, you can’t just pop the kids down to school.<\/p>\n

“If your online shop doesn’t work, you can’t just pop down to Woolies down the street.<\/p>\n

“It’s literally and figuratively a lifeline for customers in remote WA.”<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

The new satellite service will bring connectivity to isolated places within Australia. (ABC Midwest and Wheatbelt: Chris Lewis)<\/p>\n

Technology critical for remote towns<\/p>\n

For remote areas, such as the Shire of Yalgoo, CEO Ian Holland said satellite technology was important for emergency services.<\/p>\n

“A lot of our area historically hasn’t been covered by anything other than a really slow-to-connect sat [satellite] phone,” Mr Holland said.<\/p>\n

“We’ve had some investment for Starlink units for our fire trucks, and I know that other emergency services such as WA Police and St John have been rolling out LEO equipment as well.<\/p>\n

“Even just being able to make that phone call, talking with RFDS about a medical emergency, and anything that makes response faster and allows people to be tracked down faster is a massive boom to emergency services out here.”\"A<\/p>\n

Ian Holland says while the satellites are great for isolated locations, the night sky becomes full of streaking satellites. (ABC Midwest and Wheatbelt: Chris Lewis)<\/p>\n

Mr Holland said that while competition between companies would be a win for consumers, the night sky was already getting crowded with satellites.<\/p>\n

Staying connected wherever we are comes at a cost.<\/p>\n

“From a night sky perspective, we can already look up and see the trails of these objects flying through,” Mr Holland said.<\/p>\n

“I think that’s the reality of where technology is going within this space.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australia is set to get another satellite internet provider in 2026, giving SpaceX’s Starlink some long-awaited competition. Government-owned…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":49298,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[2574,64,63,99,41894,16536,6627,5708,20410,41895,5707,8419,45],"class_list":["post-49297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-amazon","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-low-orbit","tag-nbn","tag-project-kuiper","tag-satellite-internet","tag-satellites","tag-sky-muster-replacement","tag-starlink","tag-telstra","tag-wa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49297\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}