This was posted 3 years 2 months 18 days ago, and might be an out-dated deal.

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[Preorder] Low-Earth Orbit Satellite Internet (up to 150Mb/s) $139/Month + $809 Setup @ SpaceX / Starlink

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Elon Musk’s space venture - SpaceX / Starlink is now available for preorders!

Starlink is a satellite internet service providing high-speed, low latency broadband internet with speeds from 50Mb/s to 150Mb/s and latency from 20ms to 40ms. Early beta users are reporting speeds of 100Mbps+.

For Australian addresses, the estimated date for coverage is mid-to-late 2021.

Preorders cost $139. When the service goes live, you will need to pay $809 for hardware (satellite dish + shipping) and a $139/month service fee.

This looks like an attractive option for those on NBN satellite. Also can be worthwhile to replace a slower NBN connection due to the exorbitant prices for a NBN FTTP upgrade.

Starlink is now delivering initial beta service both domestically and internationally, and will continue expansion to near global coverage of the populated world in 2021.
During beta, users can expect to see data speeds vary from 50Mb/s to 150Mb/s and latency from 20ms to 40ms in most locations over the next several months as we enhance the Starlink system. There will also be brief periods of no connectivity at all.
As we launch more satellites, install more ground stations and improve our networking software, data speed, latency and uptime will improve dramatically.

As a point of reference, the best speeds achieved on Starlink in USA are

Download: 209.17 Mbps
Upload: 47.74 Mbps
Ping: 15 ms

List of Confirmed Starlink Speed Tests

Referral Links

Referral: random (39)

1 Month of free service for referrer and referee.

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Starlink
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closed Comments

        • +1

          NBNCo don't have existing arrangements to terminate and they have expensive on-going operating costs for the SkyMuster satellites.

          It would be in the national interest to sell SkyMuster satellites and subsidise Starlink connections for those outside the fixed cable / wireless footprint.

      • +4

        Why would you be silly? I'm on a FTTx service and my connection maxes out at 48Mbps - and won't get any better until they install fibre down my street (assuming they keep that promise).

        It's a price premium over NBN, but if you need the speed then this might be the only option for the next few years.

        • +2

          Yeah this is Australia, rural areas aren't the only places with internet so horrible that starlink's beta is better, LOL.

        • +1

          Starlink may not connect users in urban areas, at least not many or not at this price. They have limited bandwidth, particularly in the early stages, so it can't service many users in the same area. This is fine for rural areas, which is what the service is designed for.

          • +1

            @whats up skip: Maybe I can take a photo of the kangaroos in my yard and tell them I'm rural (although less than 20km from the CBD)

      • Starlink wasn't around when the NBN was being thought of

  • +38

    I simply cannot believe Australia's incompetence when it comes to NBN, I pay $80+ a month and my average speed is 50Mbps

    I live in metro Perth as well.

    • +17

      Some boss from NBN should be fired because they over promised and under delivered.
      I want my tax money back!

      • +135

        The Australian public voted for shit internet in 2013. The majority, actually decided they want to have shit internet, and in the long run pay more for it.

          • +82

            @His_Holiness: Labor's in? Must be their fault.
            Labor's out? Must be their fault.

            Convenient for somebody, just trying to think who…

          • +42

            @His_Holiness: What you mean is the LNP lied (there's a surprise) in order to get votes from dumb people who still think we actually paid less and got it faster than the original Labor plan.

          • +77

            @His_Holiness: You mean those two terms when Labor planned a rollout from scratch, created the legislation, setup the funding, setup the company, negotiated a really good deal where Telstra were basically going to give away the pits to get them off their books, and then started the rollout to hundreds of thousands of people?

            The Libs promised a lot, and it did get 'completed' slightly sooner, but they wasted about 2 years changing everything, paid hundreds of millions for obsolete networks from the existing companies, lost the great deal that the previous government negotiated had with Telstra, put in place a system which was only marginally cheaper and will require expensive maintenance for as long as it's in place, and now are spending billions more to redo the bits that they only installed a few years prior?

            Stellar management there!

            • @macrocephalic: Operational costs are significantly higher too; perhaps why the FTTN to FTTP upgrades are in play; they've discovered how much more expensive FTTN is to own and operate.

          • +57

            @His_Holiness: This is so detached from reality.
            * 2014: Initial costs and timing for the Coalition NBN were A$29.5 billion of public funding to construct by 2019
            * In 2016 NBN Co. said it was on target for $49 billion,[9] but by late 2018 the estimated final cost was $51 billion
            * 2020: 90% completion of a WAY worse service at twice the price.

            But hey, how good's the cricket?

            • +10

              @pais: To be fair, it is absurd to think that a cost blowout wouldn't have also happened under Labor with this sort of project.

              • +20

                @Manny Calavera: True, but to the same extent? Unlikely. So much of that blowout was remediation of the decades old copper line that FTTN relies on. NBN placed the largest single order for copper phone cable the world had seen for years to fix that crap. The original plan had that copper being ripped out and replaced with fibre - something that will still happen, but not without having wasted billions of dollars saddling consumers with a substandard patch job for many years first.

              • +8

                @Manny Calavera: No one said it wouldn't. But at least it would have been once and done. Unlike the colossal mess of random outdated garbage that was installed that's now going to cost even more to fix.

              • +8

                @Manny Calavera: We now have a cost blowout under the liberals and a need to upgrade/fix the network already. Labors cost was to get it right the first time. Even with these upgrades by the libs it still leaves a load of hfc and fftn and fttc. Whatever the cost to get all non rural areas on fttp would have been worth it. The libs nbn is going to keep costing us and costing us and costing us. We would have kept the pstn network too and we would have cheap adsl2 as a alternative for low speed use and kept landlines which is 100x more reliable and secure than voip.

              • +6

                @Manny Calavera: At least after the blowout we would have had a world class service rather than the dross we have now where if you want Gbit symmetrical it will cost you $1500 per month.

              • @Manny Calavera: Most of any cost "blowouts" with the original plan would have been due to LNP delay tactics and the wrecking nature of the Abbott opposition gov't.

          • +19

            @His_Holiness: Let's see during the 2013 election not a single IT&T expert or commentator said MTM was a good idea. In fact many public said it was dumb, it be inferior, and end costing much more than an FTTP rollout. Yet the public voted for the Coalition. You got what you voted for, so suck it up.

          • +9

            @His_Holiness: This is totally BS, all the bad things of NBN nowadays are all because of the Liberal's change on Labour's NBN plan.

          • @His_Holiness: gaslighting much

            dont get your news from murdoch sources mate. dont vote against your own interests unless your part of the elite that get tax breaks

          • +6

            @mathew42: Utter nonsense.

            https://delimiter.com.au/2012/10/18/huge-100mbps-demand-44-o…

            44% of users took up top speed, in 2012.

            • -6

              @pais: 2012 data is heavily influenced by the early adopters who naturally chose higher speeds. Have a look at the current data and you will find it is closer to 10%.

              Rather than down votes how about providing some evidence that contradicts the facts I've provided.

              • +7

                @mathew42: How do you classify those lucky enough to be randomly allocated FTTP internet in 2012 in the same group as the term "early adopters" which applies to those technology enthusiasts that choose to pay a higher price to get it before everyone else?

                Show me any evidence that the percentages of technology enthusiasts and "early adopters" in those lucky enough to get FTTP in 2012 was any different to the current spread across the general Australian population.

                • -5

                  @opposablethumbs: It took 2+ years for people to fully transition across to the NBN. In 2012, the bulk of those connecting were early adopters. The fact that since 2012 average speed tiers trended down sharply until the LNP bundled CVC with 50Mbps AVC resulting in RSPs upgrading those on 25Mbps plans to 50Mbps to maintain revenue.

        • -3

          @mathew42 you won't win this argument, despite the fact your are correct. Libs were always going to deliver a terrible solution, however labour promised the world, knowing that they wouldn't have to deliver anything while in power and when the libs made a mess and labour were back in power, they could just blame it back on the libs.

          • +4

            @Slippage: "…despite the fact your are correct."

            Amazing how in a post-truth world, definition of even simple words has become so twisted.

            "Fact: a thing that is known or proved to be true."

            Whilst the data that @mathew42 quotes may be an accepted fact, the interpretation/assertions made from that data have in no way been demonstrated. When asked for evidence, only assumptions were offered.

            This makes the assertions neither fact, nor correct, just commentary and opinion that has not been demonstrated in any way by the data quoted.

      • +2

        Many NBN high up folks are transferred from public sectors and the way they burn cash is unbelievable. ;)

        and that's after they outsourced bunch of stuffs for cost savings.

      • +3

        Nah they just set the bar really low so by their definition they over delivered and got bigger bonuses.

      • +15

        Faster cheaper sooner
        Ya wont be needing more than 25Mbs for a glorified video streaming service

        The liberal nationals haven't finished it yet and its already overpriced and obsolete

        LOL they probably have more copper on back order

        • +9

          In 2018 NBN brought 21 million meters of copper. In 2020 NBN brought another 50,000km of copper.

          • +17

            @Twix: Dude, use the same measurements! 21 and 50 million metres, or 21000km and 50000km

            • +3

              @Meconium: It came by ship, I insist he gives the measurements in nautical miles! (11,000 & 27,000, shipmates!)

            • +4

              @Meconium: Also, bought not brought.

            • @Meconium: Apologies, I was reading 2 different articles that used meters and km and forgot to convert.

              • @Twix: That's an awful lot of meters - what were they measuring?

    • +8

      Implemented so slowly and butchered that wireless networks are going to be better in the near future. Can't wait until we are all back to being stuck with Telstra.

      • +27

        Many hands make light work. Could have built it yourselves.

        Yeah me and the mates built a modern national ISP in the shed with scraps, easy as

        • just pull ourselves up from our bootstraps

          ez pz

      • +7

        society didn't accept it. it's the legislation blocked the competition. unless you are saying anything that people didn't go out on the street and protest meaning acceptance.

        in fact, TPG even attempted to circumvent it hence Wondercom.

        • If the legislation is wrong, then fight it.

      • +14

        The government (Abbott and Turnbull) specifically changed the direction of the project. You can't blame the NBN boss for doing something when the Minister in charge changes the project (and changes the NBN boss to one who will carry out their different goal).

        • +1

          I didn't blame the NBN boss.

    • Your speed is 50 most likely because you're subscribed to a 50Mbps plan (the default).
      Also if you're complaining about price, 1000Mbps (if you're lucky enough to have FTTP) is the exact same price as this satellite service.
      Don't forget the significantly higher latency that comes with satellite services as well.
      Half of all FTTN is being upgraded to FTTP over the next few years, so things will improve for 4 million households.

      Not great, but all things considered I'd still take an NBN connection over this any day of the week, unless you were unfortunate enough to be on Fixed Wireless or Sky Muster, or you had a really long copper line length on FTTN (statistically speaking this is a small percentage of FTTN users).

      • +8

        "Half of all FTTN is being upgraded to FTTP over the next few years, so things will improve for 4 million households."

        Out by a factor of 10 there @Viper8.

        Only funding provided for upgrades to FTTP for 400,000 households over 4 years.

        Despite the announcement that 6 million households will be able to apply for the upgrade and a promise of 1Gbps to 75% of those households by 2023, when you read the fineprint the reality is very different.

        Despite those hyperbolic announcements at the end of September last year, there is still very little guidance on how that lucky 400,000 will get allocated, and no actual work scheduled for at least the next 18 months.

        If we've learnt anything at all from the NBN fiasco so far, should at least be to not believe the political party of announcements. Policy and actuality lag very far behind, if at all.

        Only factual information about this so far has been what Senate Estimates Committee have been able to eke out of NBNCo and that suggests these plans are far less formed than the government announcements would have you think.

        Also, please don't assume you know why someone has a maximum NBN speed. For a significant chunk of those on FTTN that are any distance from the node, not much more than the minimum promised 25Mbps is the best they can expect for several years to come and even that degrades significantly when the pits get wet.

        Last century's technology, obsolete before it has finished, at greater cost and similar rollout time to the best available technology, implemented against the best interest of our nation for the sake of ideological bastardry by neanderthals that claim they are always the "superior economic managers". Give me a ******** break!

        Amongst many other things, the pandemic has shown us that in the third decade of the 21st Century fast, scalable internet is essential infrastructure and a driver of massive economic opportunity.

        • -1

          I was wrong, but not as wrong as you. It's 2 million.
          https://www.itnews.com.au/news/nbn-co-reveals-first-location…

          You see the bit where I said "mostly likely"? For most people "only" getting 50Mbps, its because they're on a 50Mbps plan. Fact. Just look up the ACCC quarterly NBN data.

          Yes I'm well aware of the debacle that is the NBN. But that doesn't mean there isn't anything good about it. I'm sick to death of the same people making the same complaints over and over like a broken record. It's a mess. They stuffed up. The whole country knows this. None of that changes the fact that for the vast majority of people, the NBN will still be a better offering than this deal (same speeds, less latency, less cost).

          And I'll say it a second time, as I know you or someone else will say it, but yes, there are those on Sky Muster, or Fixed Wireless, or with very long FTTN lines that will be an exception. That's true. But collectively they still make up the majority. Yes that still deserves air time, but so does the majority.

          • +5

            @Viper8: "Two million in their sites …" does not mean that they are funded and all of the assumptions about HFC ability to upgrade to 1GBps need to be taken with a mountain of salt.

            An article in Oct., based on an announcement is far from fact.

            400,000 upgrades to FTTP from FTTN over 4 years is all that have been funded according to what Senate Estimates could glean from NBNCo. Out of the two million FTTN potentially upgradeable to FTTP only 400,000 actually will be.

            Here's a recording of the whole thing at Senate estimates:
            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9gdF7RO8Ig

            So you're two million is still far more wrong than the actual 400,000.

            Why shouldn't we complain about a massive waste of public monies. Surely, we should learn from the large number of mistakes and maximise from here.

            Average numbers have no semblance to an individual's statement about their speed e.g. simple mean of two households with attainable speeds of 90Mbps and 10Mbps, respectively, gives an average of 50Mbps. I'm sure the slower household's experience is not enhanced by your average numbers. Please don't make assumptions about someone stating their individual experience.

            If you want to swallow all of the NBNCo data and government spin, feel free, however the amount of smoke and mirrors they have used to date in announcements suggests greater scrutiny is always warranted.

            Show me anywhere that shows that two million FTTN premises will be upgraded to FTTP. Two million are suitable but only 400,000 over 4 years are funded and NBNCo has still not publicly released criteria for determining which yet, let alone schedule or process.

            If it even eventuates as NBNCo have announced that still takes us to 2025 and an order of magnitude less than the 75% of 6 million you originally claimed.

          • +3

            @Viper8:

            For most people "only" getting 50Mbps, its because they're on a 50Mbps plan.

            "Most" perhaps, but that by no means is all. A significant proportion want higher but their connection isn't capable of it. Pretty much everyone in my council area and surrounds (Perth metro) can only get 50. It's not like an election "the majority have got what they asked for, we don't care about the rest".

        • -1

          Also, please don't assume you know why someone has a maximum NBN speed.

          For specific individuals it could be one of many reasons, but for the majority of people it is Labor's speed tiers making faster plans for expensive that mean around 80% of people are on slower speed than their connection is physically capable of. The facts are in the ACCC NBN Wholesale Market Indicators Report.

          • +2

            @mathew42: Agreed. But also because Telstra, who accounts for roughly half of the market, used to only offer one speed tier (it was 25 then changed to 50). Yes you could upgrade to 100 but that option was buried in their T&C's and not marketed on their home page until recently.

            You're aware that you can now have 1000/50 unlimited for just $139/m? Since the new pricing was recently introduced there has been an explosion in the number of people subscribing to those "ultrafast" speed tiers.

            • @Viper8: Only if you have FTTP, which is the whole point.

              The majority don't have FTTP and in the next 4 years a potential maximum of only 400,000 more households will get it.

              And even that plan is a bit hard to believe given the amount of deliberate opacity and lack of concrete details surrounding it.

              Also, the claims about how much of the HFC infrastructure will be capable of upgrades to 1Gbps speeds are very questionable.

              Given the government and NBNCo's record over 7 years so far, I far from trust the media releases and announcements that you are citing as "fact".

            • -1

              @Viper8:

              You're aware that you can now have 1000/50 unlimited for just $139/m? Since the new pricing was recently introduced there has been an explosion in the number of people subscribing to those "ultrafast" speed tiers.

              Let's celebrate that a network capable of 1000/400Mbps in 2010 is now offering 1000/50Mbps at a significant premium.

              ACCC reported that at the end of September 20202 (latest figures available) out of 1,528,051 FTTP connections there were a massive 221 connections on 1000/400Mbps speed tier. If Labor hadn't added speed tiers, it would have been close to the entire country with a fixed line connection.

              • -1

                @mathew42: That's cool. You'll note I said Ultrafast. If we want to increase the scope, why not include all >100/40. There's 15,105 of them, and that's from way back in September, shortly after the latest price reductions came into effect. Numbers should be well up on that in the next release, especially given more ISP's are now starting to offer those plans.

                It's already been said multiple times above that NBN is a mess. Already been said everyone knows it. God forbid anyone is celebrating the positive steps in the right direction.

              • @mathew42: " If Labor hadn't added speed tiers, it would have been close to the entire country with a fixed line connection."

                Is this the ACCC conclusion or your own?

      • lol.. I am in metro with fttn and they can't provide that, or I would take it.
        My parents are regional, 1hr drive from Sydney and no dates for the NBN, although the map says fixed wireless for there area.
        They are on ADSL and there entire area has constant dropouts due to the exchange, and ofcourse Telstra won't fix the exchange (can't really blame them the NBN rollout has taken so long).
        So this will be a viable service for them.

    • +1

      If you're in metro Perth - ditch NBN and go with a fixed wireless ISP like Node1. They cover a very good proportion of Perth these days. Way better than any NBN unless you're lucky enough to be on FTTP.

      • +2

        I've been tempted for home and have actually recommended them for friends and clients. I've heard good reports but how do you find the true speeds at busy times in the evening? The businesses I know are essentially "quiet period" users (bit of a flip from how things were ten years ago).

        • +3

          Been with them (Node1) for a bit over two years and can't recommend them highly enough. Even during peak evening times it would be very rare that I get less than 100Mb/s and "average" Speedtest results are 140 - 170 Mb/s. Sometimes crack 200Mb/s - of course there's a lot of variables in any internet speed test, but fundamentally the wireless link on the roof is not the bottleneck. Cheers.

          Mod: Referral codes not allowed in comments.

      • Any difference in the fixed wireless vs nbn?

        NBN has 250/25

        Wireless has 200/50

        I would prefer the download as I don't have much use for upload at the minute.

        Both are same price

        • 250/25 is only available to NBN customers with FTTP or HFC which is a small proportion - very small in Perth especially. If you can get that - great - go for it but it's simply not an option for most people. The FW offerings cover a significant proportion of Perth and increasingly the regional areas.

          • @karimk74: I see, I wasn't aware I had HFC at my address

            I think I will be making the switch soon then

      • "Way better than any NBN unless you're lucky enough to be on FTTP."

        Can they beat utterly congestion-free 100/40 with 6ms of latency and zero drop outs most months. That's my FTTN, and several family members on HFC.

        Speak for yourself buddy.

        Everyone in the know is aware that FW is a mess of evening congestion, drop outs and latency spikes. It has come a long way in recent years, but it still has a long way to go before it can even match fixed-line NBN.

        • +2

          Yes - my FW utterly craps on 100/40 every day of the week and I'm not even on their latest gen of LTU hardware. Speedtest result from right now: https://www.speedtest.net/result/10898218103

          And again the vast majority of people with FTTN simply can't hope to get reliable 100/40.

          • @karimk74: Nice.

            You said "Way better than any NBN unless you're lucky enough to be on FTTP". Yes for most (but not all) FTTN, but what about the other non-FTTP connection types: HFC is on track for 0.5-1Gbps and FTTC 250Mbps. I don't think there is any mainstream wireless internet service that can be classed as "way better" than those.

            Getting a service with that quality must cost a pretty penny: both ongoing and up-front? It's probably not a fair comparison with NBN, which is $0 upfront and <$100/m with no contract.

            • +1

              @Viper8: My FW is $90 a month no contract, unlimited data so yes it is better than any FTTN plan out there. Back when I joined there was no up front either. I believe new sign ups have the option between a contract with no up front or no contract but some up front cost (like about $300 I think) The large base of very satisfied customers that Node1 have is testament to the fact that people are happy with the pricing. I personally know dozens of people who have have moved from NBN to FW and would never go back so the contract is no impediment. Some people seem willing to spend hundreds on ridiculous WiFi routers hoping it will give them a couple more Mb/s too.
              And as I said, only a small proportion of people have access to FTTP or HFC to open up those higher speed plan options and HFC has had plenty of problems in a lot of areas too. People stuck on crappy FTTN simply have no better options available from NBN and even 100Mb is a pipe dream, unless they are prepared to pay vast sums to upgrade to FTTP. Yes, FTTC has potential for higher speeds - but I haven't seen anything about g.fast from NBN for over a year now so that's a pipe dream for now too. Please post link if you have anything recent showing FTTC over 100Mb.
              The point is that FW is available to a significant proportion of metro area households and simply gives them a choice for potentially way better internet than they currently have. If you are lucky enough to live close to one of towers (like being lucky to have FTTP) you can even get ultrafast FW plans that are between 500Mb & 1Gb for around $150 a month so comparable to the high end HFC & FTTP plans.

              Short version - if you have FTTP or a good HFC - good for you. If you don't, have a look at Fixed Wireless ISP's - it's a really good option that most people just don't know about.

      • I tried this and the only supplier said sorry Bud but there is a tree between our tower and your place.

        My mate did do it and at first he said the link was great then within a couple of months he said it was shit, rain interfered with it and their peering links were so bad downloading anything that wasn't on their peering network was impossible. Which meant almost everything.

        So he went to the only other option available to him at the time ADSL (two years ago) He only just got NBN a few months back now and he is close to the city in an affluent suburb.

        • Which ISP?

    • +1

      Its not incompetence. Turnbull sabotaged it as comms minister then as pm

    • I am 7k's from Adelaide CBD and my link maxes out at 24Mbit I wish I could get 50Mbit

      Edit: I also got a quote for fibre upgrade $5400. Yeah Nah

    • I pay $55 per month and get 30Mbps. Fairly shit but if I need faster speed I switch to my 4G. Not an online gamer and it's okay from work perspective.

  • +11

    It's Kingsman all over again except Samuel L. Jackson is Elon Musk

    • +55

      "I don't need it, so no one else should need it!"

      • +31

        Thats how we ended up with the dogshit network we have now, people like him.

        • +2

          I can't take credit for the network, you'll have to thank Turnbull and Telstra.

    • +1

      Duh, they aren't targeting it for urban homes. Latency will always be poor so not great for gaming.

      • +1

        latency will be 30-50ms most of the time and I've heard no more than 100ms, that's perfectly fine for gaming.

        • You clearly have no idea what you are talking about, starlink has fairly high "last mile" latency that will make the maximum distance of usable servers lower.

      • +1

        Wrong. Latency is 20-30ms which is perfectly acceptable for gaming. Once laser links are enabled between satellites, latency on Starlink will be lower to the USA than fibre, because light travels faster through a vacuum than glass.

  • $139 per month
    US dollar or Australian dollar?

    • +3

      AUD

    • It's AUD - actual billed amount today is $139

      • But the merchant seems to be in Singapore. So better choose the right card for payment.

        • +2

          Maybe cheaper in Argentina or Turkey. Just need to wait to find out.

  • +9

    This should be a far better option for rural people than the nbn satellites. Early tests are showing an average of around 100Mbps and only 20-30ms ping. And you can trust that Elon and starlink is going to continue to improve far more than nbn co are. Also this is going to be allowed to be moved around. The satellite is really quite small. Would be good for those travelling around the country in vans to rural spots where there isn’t great mobile coverage.

  • +7

    Can it be installed on campervan?

    • +1

      If you GIS the dish it's pretty smooth / compact, would be pretty easy. Wonder if the service allows roaming like that.

      • From reading US customers experience the service is for now at least tied to cell. Hopefully in the future that changes though.

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