NBN Co unveils Amazon alliance as it looks to sunset Sky Muster

NBN Co is teaming up with Amazon’s low-earth orbit (LEO) satellite network as it looks to overhaul its outback offering.

Called Project Kuiper, Amazon’s service currently consists of 78 satellites but will eventually deploy over 3200. It promises to bring faster speeds and lower latency to remote Australians from mid-2026. In theory, the service will be able to offer download speeds as high as 400Mbps to customers who are currently serviced by Satellite NBN - which caps out at around 100Mbps.

According to NBN Co CEO Ellie Sweeney, "Transitioning from two geostationary satellites to a constellation of LEO 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."

That said, the exact speeds this service will offer and how much it might cost remain an open question. NBN Co plans to iron out those key details through consultation with rural stakeholders, regulators, and retail service providers in the months between now and when the service launches in mid-2026

Commenting on the announcement, ACCAN CEO Carol Bennett reiterated the importance of consultation with both regional, rural and remote communities as well as consumer advocates.

“The announcement today represents a significant step forward in delivering faster, more reliable and most importantly more affordable satellite broadband to Australian consumers," she said.

According to NBN Co, beta-testing for Project Kuiper will begin in Tasmania next year. Eventually, the service will be available to the 300,000 premises that fall within NBN’s satellite footprint.

Project Kuiper is intended to replace NBN Co’s now-aging Sky Muster satellite service in the long run, which relies on infrastructure that it scheduled to be taken offline in 2032.

The move also comes amid a broader decline in the popularity of Satellite NBN. NBN’s Sky Muster service has been steadily losing rural customers to Starlink since it launched in Australia back in 2021.

This particular connection type also faces competition from Fixed Wireless NBN, which has been upgraded to offer both faster speeds and lower latency. These changes have quickly been reflected in the data.

According to data tracked by the ACCC, the total number of SkyMuster services has dipped from around 86,000 in March 2024 to 78,000 in March 2025.