Optus Mobile Review ALDI Mobile Review Amaysim Mobile Review Belong Mobile Review Circles.Life Review Vodafone Mobile Review Woolworths Mobile Review Felix Mobile Review Best iPhone Plans Best Family Mobile Plans Best Budget Smartphones Best Prepaid Plans Best SIM-Only Plans Best Plans For Kids And Teens Best Cheap Mobile Plans Telstra vs Optus Mobile Optus NBN Review Belong NBN Review Vodafone NBN Review Superloop NBN Review Aussie BB NBN Review iiNet NBN Review MyRepublic NBN Review TPG NBN Review Best NBN Satellite Plans Best NBN Alternatives Best NBN Providers Best Home Wireless Plans What is a Good NBN Speed? Test NBN Speed How to speed up your internet Optus vs Telstra Broadband ExpressVPN Review CyberGhost VPN Review NordVPN Review PureVPN Review Norton Secure VPN Review IPVanish VPN Review Windscribe VPN Review Hotspot Shield VPN Review Best cheap VPN services Best VPN for streaming Best VPNs for gaming What is a VPN? VPNs for ad-blocking To connect eligible homes to satellite broadband, NBN installs a satellite dish on or near the home, which is used to beam data to and from the home via one of two Sky Muster satellites in space. For Starlink, it’s a similar transmission story except the dish is installed by the user, either via included ground-level tripod or roof mount (purchased separately). For both services, a clear view between dish and satellites is required to have a better shot at lower latency, faster speeds and a more reliable connection. Below are a few examples of cheap NBN satellite plans. At the time of writing, Starlink was still in its beta phase, with the intention of being available to Australian addresses by the end of 2021. Signing up is handled directly on the Starlink website, instead of via an NBN satellite provider, which also involves entering your address. Though pitched as a global service, the plan is for Starlink to be primarily available to remote and low-density areas. That said, you may still be eligible to pre-order Starlink, though you will be refunded if the service is not available in your area. Starlink has only one service, which costs $139 per month. There’s a steep initial investment fee, too: $709 for the required hardware as well as $100 shipping and handling. If you want to pre-order, you’ll have to pay the $139 monthly fee to secure one of the first-come, first-serve spots. All up, you’re looking at $948 in terms of initial costs if you are approved. Starlink, on the other hand, currently has a speed range of between 50 and 150Mbps during its beta phase, which means it range from NBN 50 to above NBN 100 download speeds. Upload speeds are reported to be around 20Mbps. Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, tweeted in February 2021 that download speeds will double to around 300Mbps and latency should drop to around 20ms in 2021 (more on latency below). Starlink is able to achieve much lower latency because its satellites are a lot closer to Earth at 550km. In terms of the Starlink beta, this translates to latency values between 20ms and 40ms, which isn’t as fast as the 10ms-ish latencies of fixed-line NBN in metro areas (except for MyRepublic, whose latency was at 20.1ms according to ACCC data), but means that activities like voice calls, videoconferences and online gaming should feel more responsive. That steep initial cost for Starlink nets you everything you need to get online wirelessly in your home as part of the Starlink Kit: Starlink dish, WiFi router, power supply, cables and mounting tripod for ground-level dish installation. You can also pay extra for a roof mount.
