ABC Drive 12 June 2026 

Presenter:  

Tens of thousands of Australians have bought shares in Elon Musk’s SpaceX public share offering, the ipo which has made Musk the world’s first trillionaire, on paper at least. Some analysts are privately flagging the risks, however, of our growing reliance on its satellite internet service Starlink, including possible challenges to the nation’s ability to enforce its own laws. Communications Alliance Limited, the peak body which represents Australian telcos, but not Starlink, says emerging competition in the sector will protect against potential sovereign risks. Alliance CEO Luke Coleman says there are a number of other companies, including Amazon, which are developing their own Low Earth Orbit satellite networks, known as LEOs.  

Luke Coleman:  

“Well we do have competition coming into the market in the LEO space. So while at the moment Starlink is the only LEO satellite service available in Australia, Amazon LEO has also announced that it is launching its own LEO satellite constellation. In fact, Amazon has already signed an agreement with nbn Co, the operator of the National Broadband Network, that they will use Amazon’s LEO services to provide satellite connectivity in regional and remote parts of Australia. They don’t have any satellites launched yet. They have a network that is in planning and is expected to come online in coming years.”  

“They aren’t the only competition that’s coming into the market, there are a number of other companies that have plans to launch LEO satellite networks. But it is a very new market, it is a relatively new and groundbreaking technology. There’s only one available right now, but within coming years, we do expect to see more coming onto the market.”  

“There’s a range of ways that you could address the question of sovereignty. In one sense, we have sought to address it as a country by having nbn Co, as our national wholesale broadband network provider, enter into an agreement with Amazon LEO. The nbn will manage and resell that service from a wholesale perspective. And then for you as a consumer, you will go and buy a service to connect to that network through your usual telco. So the infrastructure itself, the satellites in the sky, will be owned by Amazon, but the service layer will be provided by nbn Co.”  

Presenter:  

That there was Communications Alliance Limited CEO Luke Coleman.