Claims Starlink Struggling To Keep Up With Demand Ahead Of Amazon Kuiper Satelite Service Launch

With the pending launching next year of Amazon’ Kuiper satellite service in Australia in partnership with the National Broadband Network (NBN) claims have been made that Elon Musk’s Starlink service that has been stripping customers away from the NBN in rural Australia is witnessing bandwidth problems due the volume of people who have signed up to the service.

According to NBN sources Australian customers are reporting problems and that if Starlink wants to grow in Australia more satellite capacity has to be introduced.

“We are already hearing claims that Starlink is struggling due to the amount of people who are signing on so the quicker there is an alternative the better it will be for Australians” an NBN source told ChannelNews.

Elon Musk and a Starlink satellite

This week we revealed that NBN is waiting for the Federal Government to sign off on the NBN ‘Project Kuiper’ LEO constellation deal which could be delayed if a Federal Election is called.

Australia is seen a key market for the Amazon Kuiper service which when commissioned locally will use a new generation of satellites which will handle both video and games streaming better than previous satellites.

The USA’s United Launch Alliance (ULA) is bringing forward the launch of its debut Kuiper-1 mission (officially its KA-01 launch).

This will be the first operational launch for Amazon’s giant Project Kuiper mega-constellation, and it is expected to launch in the next two months aboard an Atlas V 551 rocket.

ChannelNews understands that Amazon Kuiper management are set to launch 27 new low earth satellites with several satellites located over Australia, although the precise number has yet to be confirmed.

Amazon hasn’t said how many satellites it plans to launch on the Kuiper-1 mission although it has announced on social media that “another batch” of its Kuiper broadband production satellites was “on its way to Cape Canaveral.”

Amazon’s Kuiper fleet is planned to have a total of 3,236 satellites in low Earth orbit.

Kuiper has 46 launches booked with ULA.

Amazon has also purchased 18 launches on Arianespace’s Ariane 6 rocket, plus 12 launches on Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket, with options to add another 15 on top of that; and three launches on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket.

The move by Amazon to expand their satellite capability comes as the Italian Government has growing doubts about closing a US$1.6 billion deal with Elon Musk’s Starlink in light of the US pullback from commitments to European security.

Musk, a close ally of US President Donald Trump, is also seen as an unreliable partner by some in Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s administration, they said.

A spokesperson for the Italian government declined to comment. SpaceX, which owns Starlink, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni told her cabinet recently that changing geopolitics required looking for viable SpaceX alternatives, according to the people familiar.

President Sergio Mattarella is among those who strongly support considering different options, they said.

Reuters reported earlier that Eutelsat was among the companies in talks with the Italian government to provide secure communications.

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David Richards

David Richards has been writing about technology for more than 30 years. A former Fleet Street journalist, he wrote the Award Winning Series on the Federated Ships Painters + Dockers Union for the Bulletin that led to a Royal Commission. He is also a Logie Winner for Outstanding Contribution To TV Journalism with a story called The Werribee Affair. In 1997, he built the largest Australian technology media company and prior to that the third largest PR company that became the foundation company for Ogilvy PR. Today he writes about technology and the impact on both business and consumers.