SpaceX’s satellite internet service Starlink has nearly reached 100,000 customers in Australia in just two years of operations in the country, according to The Sydney Morning Herald.
At a round table discussion earlier in February, SpaceX officials said Starlink had earned 95,000 active users in Australia, according to anonymous sources in the telecommunication sector during the confidential meeting.
The achievement could threaten the country’s NBN LEO service rollout, after CEO Stephen Rue and head of Development Gavin Williams were pushed to stop consumers from switching to Starlink at a recent Senate hearing.
The discussion was regarding the rollout of Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites to support regional internet services. The meeting was attended by spokespersons from Amazon’s Project Kuiper, the National Broadband Network Co, Intelsat, Optus, OneWeb, Telestra, TPG Telecom, Viasat and Vocus, along with a number of government agencies.
“As indicated last week at Senate Estimates, we have seen a modest decline in the last 12 months of around 10,000 premises that were connected to Sky Muster, however, we do not track whether these customers connected to an alternative service provider,” an NBN spokesperson said last week.
The spokesperson also noted that the company had seen an increase in communications across its network amidst the trial of its Sky Muster LEO service, though data shows most recent user figures at 100,114 active participants in the program.
SpaceX Offers 50% Discount on Starlink Hardware in Japan, Australia, New Zealand https://t.co/yGzEYyWQRK
— TeslaNorth.com (@RealTeslaNorth) January 17, 2023
SpaceX is set to launch another batch of 21 Starlink satellites this afternoon at 3:13pm PT/6:13pm ET; the company cancelled its launch of 51 Starlink satellites from California earlier today due to “unfavorable weather conditions.”
