Vicky Brady (Telstra)
Telstra has inked an agreement with Elon Musk’s Starlink to provide voice-only and voice-plus broadband in rural Australia.
According to Telstra, the deal makes the telecommunications provider the first in the world to supply the service to rural and remote Australia.
Available to Telstra customers, the agreement will also provide connectivity options for businesses in Australia and overseas, as a higher bandwidth business-grade option in areas without fixed and mobile connectivity.
Telstra CEO Vicki Brady said the Starlink agreement was part of Telstra’s T25 strategy commitment to launch a satellite product with the voice and broadband options made available to consumer and business customers.
“We know that collaborating with the right partners is one of the best ways to help unlock a digital future, in this case for people in rural and remote Australia looking for an improved voice or broadband service,” Brady said.
“Our teams have been out across the country testing and trialling Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite technology to ensure we understand where it’s the best solution for our consumer and business customers.”
Telstra will announce pricing and device details closer to launch, which it expects to be in late 2023. The offer will include the installation of the devices and the potential for local support.
Telstra currently uses a mix of technologies to provide voice and broadband services in rural and remote Australia, including NBN Fixed Wireless, its mobile network and ageing copper and radio networks.
According to Telstra, LEO satellites send and receive signals quicker due to being closer to Earth and therefore make them a good option for services that need low latency, like voice and video calls or providing backhaul to mobile networks.
Starlink will provide an additional connectivity option for people and businesses in rural and remote locations where distance and terrain make it difficult to reach with existing networks.
Other Australian networking and technology providers such as Netlinkz and Vocus have also signed similar agreements with Starlink, a satellite internet constellation operated by Musk-owned SpaceX.
