1 min readTelstra has struck a deal with satellite internet service Starlink to provide SMS services for otherwise unreachable locations in rural and remote Australia.
Starlink’s Satellite-to-Mobile text messaging will be available to customers with Telstra mobile plans in areas not serviced by the Telstra mobile network – as long as there’s a direct line of sight to the sky.
The collaboration is still in the testing phase, and Telstra was careful to frame it as a “just-in-case” option for people in need of help or who want to let someone know they’re ok. There’s also no firm timing yet for when the service will launch.
Initially, connectivity will be limited to SMS only, but Telstra seems hopeful that voice and low-bandwidth internet services could be possible via satellite technology in the (unspecified) future.
This collaboration should considerably expand Telstra’s SMS mobile coverage into rural and remote Australia, but it won’t impact the majority of Australian households directly. Telstra’s current network covers 99.7% of the population, despite only spanning a bit over 3 million square kilometres of Australia’s roughly 7.7 million.
This means, while Starlink’s Satellite-to-Mobile service has more than 4 million square kilometres to work with, the newly-covered areas will mostly benefit people travelling outside of population centres.
Telstra isn’t the only company looking into using low-Earth-orbit (LEO) satellites to bolster mobile communications. TPG entered a similar agreement with Lynk Global in 2024 to allow Vodafone network customers SMS access outside of network-covered areas. And back in 2023, Optus announced its intentions to use Starlink satellites to boost its mobile coverage, initially slated for a 2024 launch. But this was eventually delayed, with the new timeframes yet to be unveiled.
