Starlink bush internet service

This low-earth-orbit satellite internet service is gradually expanding around the globe and now provides mobile, remote-area coverage throughout Australia. Text and voice satellite connection is coming in 2025/26.

We installed Starlink at our house in the NSW Southern Highlands, because we became entirely fed up with the lousy NBN service from Telstra. We were without reliable internet connection for three months while they blamed us for its inoperability.

Finally, after my better half read them the riot act, they sent out a technician. Like nearly everyone Down Under, we have Malcolm Turnbull’s el cheapo ‘fibre to the node; copper to the house’ connection and it didn’t take the techo long to find five pairs of incorrect connections.

READ MORE: Travelling with Starlink in Australia: Everything you need to know

We figured that next time people were working on that node, they’d bugger-up the connections again, so we checked out the Starlink satellite option. Our mates in Canberra loved theirs, so we bit the bullet.

However, given subsequent 2025 actions by Starlink’s owner, Elon Musk, we are somewhat conflicted by our choice of Starlink.

We forked out $800 for the rooftop dish and modem in late 2023, and our monthly account is $139. That’s more expensive than Telstra, but boringly reliable and fast. We average downloads in the 150-200Mb/s range and uploads in the 10-20Mb/s range.

Our dish is round – 600mm in diameter – but later models are rectangular – 300mm x 500mm. They weigh around 4kg.

Because it’s a satellite system, we figured it would be handy as a mobile internet service and now that has come to pass. Starlink has around 2000 satellites in place at present and planned to have at least 10,000 in low orbit by end-2023.

From July 2022, reliable, remote-area coverage was available, but could only be accessed from a stationary – camped – position.

As of November 2022 Starlink offered a mobile service that was not, as before, limited to working only when stationary. Said to be ideal for RVs, caravans or 4WDs, it’s even available for some aircraft!

As at mid-2023, the Starlink Roam equipment cost was $450 and the monthly cost was $174. An improved connection plan cost $200 per month.

With that, using a VOIP phone service on SL could make traditional satellite phone redundant.

Taking the home dish – or not

People who don’t need to retain their house dish when travelling may think it’s a good idea to take it with them as a ‘roaming’ dish. Switching to Starlink Roam and taking your house-mounted dish with you can be done through your Starlink account, by simply changing the service type.

That seems fine, but as we read the terms of the Roam account, your dish is now only a ‘best effort’, not ‘priority’ connection, so your connection will be less reliable and so will internet speeds.

Mobile test findings

Starlink claims that almost all of Oz has high capacity coverage and the remainder is low capacity. Certainly, OTA’s testers around Australia report good internet coverage from Starlink’s fixed-installation dishes, but the initial mobile service was far from good.

One of our OTA test teams reported very poor reliability from the mobile dish on an around-Australia trip in early 2023.

Mobile phone text and voice service is coming

Starlink has already implemented limited mobile (cell phones in North America) phone text communications via its satellites in the North America and voice connection is scheduled for release in 2025. As with the Starlink data service, expansion of the mobile phone connection service is expected to follow quickly for Australia, probably through the Optus network.

Starlink’s vision was to connect everyone using their existing phones, without needing upgrades or a special app, so the company decided to use standard LTE/4G protocols.

In mid-2024, Starlink also released a portable mini-dish that’s designed to fit into a normal hiking backpack.

“Mobile phones are difficult to connect to satellites hundreds of kilometers away, given a mobile phone’s low antenna gain and transmitting power,” Starlink said. 

“Starlink satellites with the Direct to Cell payload are equipped with innovative new custom silicon, phased array antennas and advanced software algorithms that overcome these challenges and provide standard service to cell phones on the ground.”

Developing a satellite network that connects to unmodified cell phones presented several new technical and regulatory challenges, beyond those Starlink has already overcome in deploying a 7000+ satellite constellation in a few years, serving more than 2.3 million customers across the globe.

What a shame Elon Musk is associated with this great service.