Starlink on the Up Down Under

We’ve covered Starlink’s expansion in rural localities across Oceania, Africa, and Latin America—and now Starlink-enabled connectivity is booming across Australia too.

Starlink—the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite broadband operation of US-based SpaceX—has passed the milestone of half a million subscriptions in Australia. According to a report from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), at the end of 2025 Starlink had 552,000 subscriptions across Australia, up from 375,000 six months before and 297,000 at the start of 2025.

Let’s take a look at this rise of Starlink Down Under, powered by TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database team.

A history of Starlink in Australia

Elon Musk’s SpaceX launched Starlink in Australia in April 2021, offering a trial version of its service in northern Victoria and southern New South Wales (NSW). In the following months, it initially focused on serving “low and remote density areas” but, having progressively enhanced coverage throughout 2022, in November that year the operator was reported to have achieved nationwide coverage.

As of June 2026, Starlink has three core tariffs for residential users, offering download rates up to 100Mbps for $75 ($53.60) a month, up to 200Mbps for $110 a month, and up to the maximum available speed for $150 a month. The peak download rate’s currently advertised as up to 350Mbps, with uploads capped at 40Mbps on all plans. All residential tariffs include an unlimited download allowance.

In addition, its Roam service—aimed at RVs, campers and working on the go—can be used in over 150 countries and is priced at $85 per month for 100GB of monthly bandwidth, or $210 for an unlimited service.

There is an additional $549 ($392) charge for hardware, though the operator does run occasional promotions where equipment is offered for free.

Starlink’s partnership with Telstra

Two notable deals were announced in July 2023, with the first of these being between Starlink and Telstra. As per the agreement between the pair, Telstra revealed it would provide a fixed voice service coupled with Starlink broadband services to Australians as a bundle offer, while offering local tech support and the option of professional installation.

Telstra said the agreement with Starlink would 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”.

Telstra eventually confirmed the commercial launch of this fixed broadband service in April 2024.

Starlink and Optus agreement

Meanwhile, July 2023 also saw Starlink and another Australian carrier, Optus, strike a deal to deliver mobile connectivity using the former’s satellite constellation, with a view to extending coverage to “100% of Australia”.

Through its agreement with SpaceX, Optus said it would work to expand the reach of customers’ mobile connectivity to include the 60% of Australia’s territory lacking mobile coverage, with this to be achieved through a phased rollout of SpaceX’s satellite capability, starting with SMS in 2024, and with voice and data services to follow in the second half of 2025.

Optus was beaten to the punch, though. In January 2025 Telstra and Starlink unveiled their own plans to collaborate on bringing satellite-to-mobile direct-to-cell (D2C) text messaging to Telstra customers and a commercial launch of the technology was confirmed in June that year.

Meanwhile, Optus admitted in early 2025 that its schedule for the launch of D2C services had slipped and a launch is still to take place.

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