Northern Beaches becomes first Starlink council customer

The Northern Beaches Council, covering a population of over 266,000, has made a progressive broadband services switch to Starlink becoming the first council and first government agency in NSW to access the LEO satellite broadband service.

A new contract between the council and Starlink distributor Vocus Satellite will ensure council can continue to operate and provide critical services to the community when networks are down, as experienced in recent emergencies and natural disasters.

David Jack, Vocus head of government, state and territory and local, told CRN that Starlink was attracting strong interest from the local government sector as well as state and federal agencies.

 “A key discussion point with government at all levels has been around building resiliency against natural disasters like flooding and bushfires," Jack said.

"Vocus Satellite – Starlink is a portable service so it can be quickly deployed into an emergency anywhere, but equally, we’re also seeing interest from government organisations looking to permanently deploy it to their sites as both an active network link and a backup,” he said

The Northern Beaches council said it made the decision to move to satellite as a result of recent adverse weather events and is part of their preparations for future challenges, as set out in its revised Resilience Strategy.

Northern Beaches chief executive Ray Brownlee said, “satellite broadband is a real game changer for Council.

"It doesn’t require the traditional infrastructure of cables and fibre optics which can be disrupted during floods and fires," Brownlee said.

"We need to ensure our teams remain operational in times of crisis, so we can continue to provide critical services to the community,” he added.

The Council said integration with Starlink powered broadband will improve delivery of critical services, including child-care centres and Surf Life Saving clubs.

It will also mitigate heavy costs associated with network engineers troubleshooting unreliable network connections or black spot locations.

The rollout should also reduce network downtime due to dual reliable links installed at critical locations.

“We are a Council that is focused on innovation and we are proud to be the first government agency in NSW to sign an agreement with this service provider,” Brownlee said.

Last year’s parliamentary inquiry into the response to major flooding across NSW in February and March found that NSW government agencies and telecommunications providers failed to ensure that communities affected by the floods had adequate emergency communications.

The inquiry called for the NSW government to consult with telecommunications and satellite providers to investigate ways to avoid the complete loss of telecommunication services in natural disasters.

Also noted by the inquiry was the lack of satellite phones during the crisis.

It emphasised the need for the distribution of satellite phones and terminals to community hubs in flood prone areas.

“Vocus’ role in providing the underlying infrastructure for low earth orbit satellite operators in Australia is also something that’s of interest to government organisations, they’re keen to know where we are investing in infrastructure and how that matches up with the challenges they face," Jack added.

Starlink hit over 1 million users in Q4 2022.

According to Ookla, during Q4 2022, Starlink in New Zealand had the fastest median download speed among satellite providers in Oceania at 124.72 Mbps, followed by Starlink in Australia at 106.43 Mbps.

However, New Zealand fixed broadband outperformed Starlink, while Starlink in Australia outperformed fixed broadband providers.