Official: NBN chooses Amazon’s Kuiper Satellite for future regional broadband internet

As was hinted several months ago, Australia’s National Broadband Network has inked a deal with Amazon to utilise their Kuiper low-earth-orbit (LEO) satellite system to replace the existing Sky Muster Satellites in providing broadband internet to the most remote and regional parts of Australia.

Australia’s Minister for Communications Anika Wells describes this as “City Quality Broadband to Remote Australia”, and it will be available from 2026.

With Amazon’s plans to have their more than 3,000 Satellites in orbit progressing to a planned 50% completion in mid 2026 and 90% deployed by 2029 the timing works perfectly with the NBN’s own decommissioning of their two Geostationary Satellites called Sky Muster I and II.

Sky Muster was launched in 2015 and the following year the second went up to provide a complete coverage across Australia. Those satellites sit 35,000 km in space aimed just at Australia for Aussie broadband internet.

But they only have a 15-20 year lifespan, so with that 15 year minimum approaching in 2030 it’s critical there’s a plan in place for the future.

When Sky Muster first launched it was a revolution for the busy. I remember my mum’s remote property going from 1mbps download speeds on ADSL to 25 on NBN Satellite and while today that might seem unworkable for some, many in the bush still rely on this service to connect them to the world. After all, the big telcos aren’t planning to run new connection options any time soon?

And while competition has entered the market with Elon Musk’s Starlink and it’s been well received by thousands of Aussies, it’s expensive so NBN’s options need to be competitive on price.

Given Amazon Kuiper plans to offer mutliple dish sizes, each of which offer faster speeds as they get bigger, we anticipate the NBN base plan will use their smallest dish, while offering higher speeds on the bigger dish plans, but all that is yet to be announced.

Kuiper, like Starlink operates in Low Earth Orbit – closer to 600km from earth, and thus offers far better speed potential than a Satellite sitting 35,000km away. Amazon Kuiper plans to offer speeds between 100Mbps and 1Gbps so we expect some strong competition in this space from NBN.

I saw the Project Kuiper receiver dishes at Amazon’s HQ in Seattle two years ago, and expect NBN Branded versions of this to be part of the roll out.

There’s a lot to learn about this project, more will come.

Current SkyMuster Satellite customers need not panic, NBN is commencing a consultation process over the months ahead and the current Satellite services will continue for several years as the hundreds of thousands of customers transition to the new Amazon Kuiper backed LEO connectivity.

Ellie Sweeney, Chief Executive Officer at NBN Co, said: 

“LEO satellite broadband, supplied by NBN Co and powered by Amazon’s Project Kuiper, will be a major leap forward for customers in parts of regional, rural and remote Australia.

“This important agreement will complement our other major network upgrades that have involved the rollout of full fibre services across much of our fixed line network and the deployment of the latest 5G millimetre wave technology to improve the speed and capacity of our fixed wireless network.

“Australians deserve to have access to fast, effective broadband regardless of whether they live in a major city, on the outskirts of a country town or miles from their nearest neighbour. That’s what nbn was set up to deliver. By upgrading to next generation LEO satellite broadband powered by Project Kuiper, we are working to bring the best available technology to Aussies in the bush.

“Transitioning from two geostationary satellites to a constellation of Low Earth Orbit satellites will help to ensure the nbn network is future-ready and delivers the best possible broadband experience to customers living and working in parts of regional, rural and remote Australia.

“We plan to bring faster, lower latency broadband to Australians living and working in regional, rural and remote areas, enabling their ongoing participation in the economy for work, study, telehealth, streaming entertainment and connecting with family and friends.

“This new LEO service will eventually replace our geostationary satellites, and we are committed to working with regional communities to ensure we provide continuity of service and make the transition as smooth and seamless as possible.”

Rajeev Badyal, Vice President, Technology at Amazon’s Project Kuiper, said:

“We’ve designed Project Kuiper to be the most advanced satellite system ever built, and we’re combining that innovation with Amazon’s long track record of making everyday life better for customers. We’re proud to be working with nbn to bring Kuiper to even more customers and communities across Australia and look forward to creating new opportunities for hundreds of thousands of people in rural and remote parts of the country.”