Key Points
- Australia’s NBN chose Amazon’s new Project Kuiper satellite service over Elon Musk’s Starlink.
- The deal will provide high-speed internet to 300,000 remote homes and businesses.
- Amazon’s service is largely untested, while Starlink is the established global leader.
- Starlink already has over 250,000 customers in Australia, making the decision a notable snub.
Australia’s state-owned internet network has made a surprising choice, hiring Amazon’s untested satellite startup, Project Kuiper, to provide internet to its most remote areas. The decision is a significant snub to Elon Musk’s Starlink, which is already the dominant player in the field.
The deal will connect around 300,000 homes and businesses that are beyond the reach of Australia’s terrestrial network, NBN Co. Starting next year, Amazon’s low-Earth orbit satellites will begin replacing two older government-owned satellites. The financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
The choice is a big gamble. Amazon’s Project Kuiper is a newcomer, with only 78 satellites launched so far, compared to Starlink’s massive network of 8,000. Starlink already serves over 250,000 customers in Australia, making the NBN’s decision a major missed opportunity for Musk’s company.
So why pick the underdog? One telecom analyst, Paul Budde, suggested the decision was likely made to reduce “sovereign risk.” He explained that Australia probably wants to avoid becoming too dependent on a single, powerful company tied to an “unpredictable America,” especially with a figure like Musk at the helm.
NBN executives expressed confidence in their choice, pointing to Amazon’s reported $15 billion investment in the project. They said the decision came after a “rigorous” selection process, but did not give a specific reason for choosing Amazon over Starlink.
