Starlink vs nbn · Riverland, South Australia
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Starlink vs nbn Fixed Wireless
Most people out here are choosing between Starlink and nbn Fixed Wireless, not Sky Muster. Here is the comparison with real numbers, including the ones that do not flatter Starlink.
Residential kit $0 upfront. Roam kits from $289. A boxed kit from a shop is $549.
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You buy the kit and the plan from Starlink at Starlink's price. Ordering through that link gets you the free month; it also gives us a referral credit. We are an independent installer, not a Starlink reseller or agent.
Start with what you can actually get
nbn is decided address by address, not town by town.
Renmark, Berri, Loxton, Barmera and Waikerie town addresses all came back FTTN, with the fibre upgrade either orderable now (Renmark, Waikerie) or in design for 2028-2029 (Loxton, Barmera, Berri).
Addresses out of town, Lyrup and the Waikerie back roads among them, came back Fixed Wireless, and the most remote blocks came back Satellite.
So the real question is rarely “Starlink or nbn”. In town it is usually “is the fixed line good enough”, and out on the blocks it is “can the tower reach me, and is it busy”.
What each one sells
nbn's Fixed Wireless tiers are peak-hour maximums, 7 to 11 pm. Starlink's are the plan names you see at checkout.
| nbn Fixed Wireless | Down / up |
|---|---|
| Superfast | 357 / 25 Mbps |
| Home Fast | 187 / 15 Mbps |
| Plus | 100 / 14 Mbps |
| Basic II | 25 / 5 Mbps |
| Starlink Residential | Monthly |
|---|---|
| Residential 100 Mbps | $75/mo |
| Residential 200 Mbps | $110/mo |
| Residential Max | $150/mo |
What they actually deliver
Not our figures and not the sellers'. The ACCC tests real households and publishes it.
| Service | Download | Busy hours | Upload | Latency | Outages a day |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starlink Residential Max | 230.4 Mbps | 199.1 Mbps | 47.5 Mbps | 26.2 ms | 2.05 |
| nbn Fixed Wireless Home Fast | 176.6 Mbps | 160.5 Mbps | 14.3 Mbps | not published | 0.12 |
| nbn Fixed Wireless Plus | 105.2 Mbps | 99.4 Mbps | 13.7 Mbps | not published | 0.12 |
Read it honestly and it says three things. Starlink is faster than Fixed Wireless and much faster on upload. Fixed Wireless is far steadier, with a fraction of the short outages. And the gap between the two is nothing like the gap between either of them and old satellite.
Which one we would put in
- Tower in range, signal good, price matters: stay on Fixed Wireless. It is cheaper, steadier and nbn installs it free
- Tower there but the evenings crawl: Starlink, because a congested tower does not get better by complaining about it
- No usable tower signal, or trees and river cliffs in the way: Starlink
- Upload matters, for cameras, working from home, sending files: Starlink, by three times
- Business that cannot be offline: both, with automatic failover. We do this for Riverland businesses already
- Still on Sky Muster: almost always Starlink, on latency alone
Where Sky Muster is heading
Worth knowing before you sign anything long.
Still sold. Capped Sky Muster Plus plans were withdrawn on 1 March 2025 and those customers moved to Plus Premium. The business satellite service ended 31 December 2025. Entry 25/5, Mid 50/5, High 100/5 Mbps, uncapped data under a fair use policy, free standard install by nbn.
On 5 August 2025 nbn picked Amazon's Project Kuiper to serve more than 300,000 premises in the satellite footprint, with the transition off the geostationary Sky Muster satellites happening over the coming years. Amazon is launching in Australia from the middle of 2026, and nbn expects the Sky Muster satellites to stay operational until about 2032.
There is a fuller comparison on the Sky Muster page, including what taking the old dish down involves.
nbn questions
Is Starlink better than nbn Fixed Wireless?
Not automatically. If you are in range of an upgraded tower with a clear signal, Fixed Wireless is cheaper, steadier and there is no kit to buy. Starlink wins when there is no usable tower signal, when the tower is congested, when you need decent upload, or when you want it working this week instead of after a queue.
Which one do I actually have available?
It is per address, not per town. On the addresses we checked, the town centres of Renmark, Berri, Loxton, Barmera and Waikerie all came back FTTN on the fixed line. Out on the blocks it is Fixed Wireless, and the furthest places are Satellite. Check your own address on nbn's site before you decide anything.
I am in town. Should I bother with Starlink?
Usually not for the main connection. If you are on FTTN in town and getting a fair speed, nbn is the cheaper answer and we will tell you so. Where we do get called in town is when the fixed line is slow or keeps dropping, or as a backup service for a business that cannot be offline.
How does the upload compare?
That is Starlink's clearest win. Independent ACCC testing in March 2026 put Starlink at 47.5 Mbps upload against 14.3 on Fixed Wireless Home Fast. If you send big files, run cameras off site or work from home, you feel it.
Does Starlink drop out more than Fixed Wireless?
Yes, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling. The same ACCC report counted about two short outages a day on Starlink against 0.12 on Fixed Wireless. They are brief, a stream rides through most of them, and it is the honest trade for having a connection at all in places a tower cannot reach.
What happens to Sky Muster?
It is still sold, but nbn has chosen Amazon's Project Kuiper to replace it for the satellite footprint, with the changeover happening over the next few years and the Sky Muster satellites expected to last until about 2032. If you are on Sky Muster today the comparison that matters is latency: about 665 ms against Starlink's 26 ms.
Can you switch me over?
Yes, and we do it most weeks. We take the old nbn dish or Fixed Wireless antenna off the roof, put the Starlink up, reuse the existing cable run where it is sound, and set the house network back up so nothing else changes.
More
- Starlink vs nbn Fixed WirelessWhat each one delivers here, with the ACCC's own measurements.
- Speeds we have measuredReal download figures from our own Riverland installs, town by town.
- Starlink dropping outWhat it usually turns out to be, and what you can check yourself.
- Starlink vs Sky MusterSpeed, data, latency and what switching costs in the Riverland.
- Starlink for caravans and 4WDsRoam plans, the Mini, 12 V power and mounts that survive corrugations.
- The Starlink free monthHow the referral credit works in Australia, and what disqualifies it.
- Starlink in MilduraMounts, brackets, the Mini and installs across the river, by arrangement.
- Mounts and bracketsWhich mount suits a tin roof, a tile roof, a shed or a van.
- What an install costsEvery price, and what makes a job dearer than a standard one.
- Starlink on a houseboatRoam, 12 V, a protected mount and a link back to shore.
Who we are
CCTV, networking, automation and Starlink installs for farms, businesses, councils and homes across the Riverland.
- Business
- Smart Automation Solutions Pty Ltd
- ABN
- 81 676 961 345
- Workshop
- 2 Eighteenth Street, Renmark SA 5341
- Phone
- 08 7501 6111
- office@smartautomationsolutions.com.au
- Hours
- Mon–Fri 7:30 am – 4:30 pm
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