Dear Beagle Editor,
Has Elon Musk, done something that the Australian government couldn't do? Provide fast and reliable internet for rural Australia. If you have not heard of it yet. Starlink is a small motorised satellite that receives internet signal from low orbiting satellites.
With Starlink making 5,000 of these a day and looking to ramp up production, large numbers of these are hitting Australian shores.
With promised average speeds of over 100MBPS minimum and some customers receiving up to 380MBPS of unlimited internet, it puts NBN Skymuster and NBN fixed wireless to shame.
Not reliant on any NBN infrastructure, you are unlikely to loose internet in a storm (although speeds may slow to 100MBPS in a storm), when the NBN pits fill up with water or corroded copper joints in the street give out, that's not going to affect you. As Starlink runs solely on power you provide to the dish, those with solar or a back up generator will still have internet in power outages and in these holiday times with so many extra holiday makers around, you are not going to see your internet speeds differ at all.
Now Starlink is not for everyone. If you live in town with reliable, fast internet, it's not for you. There are also some cons. Number one is the price, $709 for the dish, mount, cable and modem. Followed by $100 shipping from California. There's then the monthly $139. There can also be issues with service if you have tall trees directly over your house and there is an unsightly 20m cable that comes with it that you will want to try to hide and the cable is not replaceable, so if you damage it, you need a new dish.
For some though, those prices will seem reasonable as they are with a capped NBN Skymuster, limits, which once exceeded, charge an arm and a leg, or those with pre-paid dongles often racking up to $200 per month as it's all they can get. We have seen customers with WiFi speeds of 1MBPS suddenly transformed to 230MBPS and they can finally get the all important Netflix. Some customers are flocking over, just to get rid of the years of hassle of dealing with NBN.
The Starlink has been designed for easy installation for anyone in any country. Bang the mount on the roof, the dish drops into the mount and you run the cable into the modem. Within minutes the dish is on the move, seeking out the low orbit satellite. Create a simple password on an app on your phone and your away.
Love it or hate it, you will be seeing more and more of these as you drive around.
Paul Davies
Paul Davies TV, Phone, Data & Communications
Kind Regards, Paul Davies Paul Davies TV, Phone, Data & Communications
