Starlink vs NBN: An Outback Reality Check (With Bonus Waiting Music)

One Outback resident tests both, battles long delays, dodgy copper, and finally discovers who really delivers when the dust settles.

If you live in the Australian Outback, you don’t expect good internet. You negotiate with it. You plead. You lower your standards. And when it works for more than ten minutes in a row, you briefly consider writing a thank-you note to the modem.

One local resident -  let’s call them PP -  has now achieved something rare: running Starlink and full-fibre NBN side by side. Not in a lab. Not in a city apartment. But in the real world, where dust gets into everything and “we’ll be there Tuesday” is more of a vibe than a promise.

The Early Years: Lower Your Expectations

Once upon a time, there was:

• Dial-up: painfully slow, assuming you even had a landline.
• Mobile coverage: fine one minute, gone for days the next.
• ADSL: technically “broadband”, practically useless for streaming.

Then in 2018, salvation arrived in the form of the NBN (FTTN) -  fibre to a box somewhere in the distance, then copper the rest of the way.

In PP’s case, that meant nearly a kilometre of copper that had already lived a full and meaningful life.

At first it delivered about 50 Mbps. Then it aged rapidly. Dropouts became a lifestyle. Repairs became theoretical. Eventually, the service reached the point where it existed mainly as a billing exercise.

By early 2024, the line was so unreliable it was quietly escorted out of the house.

Starlink: A Disturbing Lack of Drama (2024)

Enter Starlink, which behaved in a deeply un-Australian way: it did what it said it would.

• Ordered online
• Arrived from the US in two weeks
• Installed in about 90 minutes, mostly involving a pole, a ladder, and a tree that had been getting ideas

The app worked. The internet worked. The dropouts stopped.

Later, when the router developed a fault, Starlink support rang from the US, apologised, and replaced the entire kit under warranty.

No forms. No escalation. No suggestion that the user reboot for the eighth time.

Out here, that sort of behaviour raises suspicion.

The Return of the NBN (Now With Fibre!)

In late 2025, NBN Co announced the rollout of Fibre to the Premises.

PP signed up through Aussie Broadband for a 500/50 plan, ordered in October.

What followed was a familiar performance:

• First visit: boxes installed, fibre missing
• Appointments cancelled, rebooked, and occasionally imagined
• Fibre installed in instalments, like a very slow advent calendar
• One appointment confidently rescheduled for January 2026

Then, without warning, it was connected in mid-December. This caused mild shock.

To be fair: once it was on, it worked. No outages. No drama. Which only raised the question: why did it take months to do the bit that actually mattered?

The Side-by-Side Test

PP now runs both services - because trust, once broken, takes time.

Final Verdict (Subject to Change Without Notice)

Starlink:

• Worked when nothing else did
• Turned up on time
• Fixed problems without blaming the customer

NBN FTTP:

• Is faster
• Is cheaper
• Works well once it exists

PP will keep both running for now. Reliability comes first, followed by cost and support -  not glossy announcements or press releases.

The real lesson?

If you live remotely and need internet now, Starlink is not the future - it’s the present.

And if the NBN finally reaches your house with actual fibre and switches it on before you retire, it might just be the better deal.

Just don’t cancel anything until you see the lights stop blinking.

You can read the full PDF here with all the techical stuff and images included. I encourage you to, as it has some great information and images. Please feel free to download it for easy reference.