“We determined that Amazon was the best partner for us to deliver that.
“We are so proud of what Sky Muster has delivered for remote Australia over the last decade, and it’s now time to evolve.”
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The executive would not be drawn on the financial terms of the Amazon partnership but said additional taxpayer funding would not be necessary. She also said the deal was “not exclusive” to Amazon.
“The actual contract is commercial-in-confidence, but in terms of the Australian taxpayer, NBN is funding this initiative. It’s funded by NBN, it is not funded by a taxpayer injection.”
Amazon’s country manager for Project Kuiper, Joe Lathan, said that to date, Amazon had invested $15 billion into its satellite network. He said that while plan pricing had yet to be determined, affordability would be key a focus.
Telecommunications analyst Paul Budde said he had reservations around Australia relying on a US-based firm for its rural communications but that there was no realistic alternative.
Elon Musk’s Starlink has racked up more than 200,000 customers Australia-wide to date.Credit: AP
“I mean, we can’t use the Chinese or the Russians,” Budde said. “Amazon is a relatively new player in the market, they’ve been talking about [satellites] for a decade but now they’re finally launching. Amazon was quite keen to get some customers so I’d say they might have been able to do a good deal. Starlink is better established, but they’ve been more unstable with Elon Musk at the helm.
“I’m glad from that perspective that NBN Co has chosen Amazon rather than Starlink, and it helps create better competition in the market, which is always better than just having one monopolist like Starlink.”
NBN Co will now begin a consultation process with stakeholders, including telcos and members of the community, to determine what broadband plans will be available and how they’ll be priced. Customers using Sky Muster services will also need to be transitioned to Amazon’s LEO satellites.
Carol Bennett, chief executive of consumer group ACCAN, called on the federal government to establish a ministerial roundtable to engage with rural Australians.
“Regional, rural and remote communities are no strangers to transitioning to new technologies, having most recently been impacted by the 3G switch-off, and historically transitioned from NBN’s initial interim-satellite solution to Sky Muster, but we need to learn from the challenges of these transitions,” she said.
“The announcement today represents a significant step forward in delivering faster, more reliable, and most importantly, more affordable satellite broadband to Australian consumers.”