The chief executive of NBN Co says “all options are on the table” in trying to improve the company’s satellite service as the government-owned business loses customers in regional Australia to Elon Musk’s Starlink service.
Musk’s low-Earth orbit (Leo) satellite business has reportedly told other providers in Australia it has signed up more than 120,000 customers nationally since launching last year.
Some who have signed up to the service have told Guardian Australia that although it is more expensive than NBN Co’s satellite service, it offers higher speeds, better latency and unlimited data.
As NBN Co satellites enter middle age, the CEO, Stephen Rue, said the company is beginning to plan for their replacements – by 2030, when they run out of fuel.
“It’s prudent for us to look at all options on the table for a replacement satellite strategy. This could include Leo technologies or more traditional geo-based satellites or other terrestrial-based technologies,” he told a Senate estimates hearing on Thursday.
Until then, NBN Co has been trialling new plans to keep customers on the service as well as shifting some customers on to the fixed wireless service to free up capacity on the satellites.
NBN Co is now down to about 94,000 satellite customers, after 24,000 migrated on to fixed wireless in March.
Rue said the company conducted a three-month trial offering 10,000 customers unlimited downloads and 100 megabit-per-second speeds on its satellite service, which could eventually be expanded to compete against Starlink and other similar services.
The company’s head of regional and remote, Gavin Williams, told the hearing that once that was in place it would ease the “data anxiety” about data caps. He said NBN Co would be offering a service that is cheaper than Starlink, with free installation and on-the-ground support.
“The prices that are offered by Sky Muster [the satellite service] are significantly lower than some of the alternatives. So we offer plans that [are] as low as $35 a month. Affordability is a real issue that we hear about.”
The Liberal senator Sarah Henderson said affordability is “not a driver of business” when the broadband service is so poor.
Rue said the company was looking at doing everything it could to improve the product.
“We are working through how we could implement further plans on the satellite and we’re looking at various ways in which we can serve regional Australia going forward – which is a complicated exercise,” he said.
“But if you put all the technologies available, we are looking at ways in which we can continue to enhance our services for regional Australia.”
