Starlink is currently only available to Australians in northern Victoria and southern NSW (below 32 degrees latitude), though it says the "service will expand across the country in coming months". That morning, he clocked a download speed of 344Mbps.Ī procession of Starlink satellites in the night sky. "I connected to its Wi-Fi network on the phone and had blazingly fast internet," he said. Within minutes, he said he had set up the dish in his backyard, plugged it in and watched it automatically orient itself to find a satellite overhead. On Monday this week, James de Salis in Canberra received his Starlink set-up box in a courier package. In February, Starlink announced that Australians could pre-order the satellite dishes for the beta service, which would be available later in the year. That's more lag than most Australian broadband plans (about 10ms), but significantly less than what Sky Muster users typically report (about 600ms). Starlink says users can expect latency of 20 milliseconds (ms) to 40ms in most locations, and this will drop to less than 16ms to 19ms in mid to late 2021. If you've been on a video call where people talk over the top of each other because of the delay in hearing what the other person is saying, that's latency. Sky Muster, the most popular satellite internet service in Australia, has a top download speed of 50Mbps, with users of its premium 'plus' service reporting average speeds of about 40Mbps.Īside from speed (also known as bandwidth), there's also the issue of latency, which is the lag between the moment a data packet is sent and the moment it's received and processed. The Starlink box with cables and satellite dish delivered to James de Salis in Canberra this week. That's roughly equivalent to the speed of a very good NBN plan, or about twice a typical 4G mobile internet service.Īnd for people in rural areas without 4G reception or broadband cables, it's faster than anything else on offer. Starlink’s public beta test, known as "Better Than Nothing Beta," launched in October 2020 in the northern US and southern Canada, where users reported average download speeds of about 100 megabits per second (Mbps). Starlink promises to give people living in the bush what they've wanted for a long time internet that's just as fast as that in the city.īut can it follow through on this promise?Īnd will it break down the rural-city digital divide and offer faster speeds for all Australians? How fast is Starlink in Australia? In Facebook groups and chat forums, the Starlink news has been generally met with excitement and relief, although some are wary of the bold claims made on behalf of satellite internet and are urging caution. On Wednesday, Ms Powell received the $700 rooftop satellite dish she had ordered from Starlink earlier in the year. A Starlink satellite dish on a rooftop in Canberra.
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