Back in February SpaceX’s Starlink internet website went live. We knew it was coming to Australia sometime this year and it has now started rolling out to limited areas.
The company recently announced that the beta version of Starlink is now available in parts of rural Victoria and New South Wales.
“Starlink is now available in limited supply in Australia! Initial beta service is available in parts of central Victoria and southern New South Wales,” a press release read.
“Service will expand across the country in the coming months.”
What will Starlink speeds and prices be like?
The announcement also reiterated the previously advertised speeds that users can expect during the beta period.
“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,” the Starlink website says.
The company has also stated that at there will also be brief periods of zero connectivity.
“As we launch more satellites, install more ground stations and improve our networking software, data speed, latency and uptime will improve dramatically.”
Still, the current advertised speeds are still significantly faster than the options many rural Australians have on Sky Muster satellite NBN services.
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Sky Muster currently only has NBN 12 and NBN 25 plans, with the Plus version of the service also offering burst speeds which allows connections to go above these limits.
But even with these improvements, Starlink is a low-orbit satellite system that is roughly 60-times closer to earth. That makes it a significant competitor to Sky Muster, even though it only has one plan available right now.
It costs $139 a month and comes with a $709 hardware fee and $100 shipping fee. If you want to pre-order now you can, you’ll just need to put down a deposit that is equivalent to one month of service.
If you’re curious as to when you might get access to Starlink, you can check you location availability over on the website. Since it launches in December it seemed like most Australians were given a mid-late 2021 date range.
And if you want a deeper comparison between Starlink and Sky Muster, we have one for you right here.