Communications Alliance CEO Luke Coleman was interviewed by ABC Radio Sydney Mornings 

4 June 2025: Transcript: Luke Coleman interview on ABC 702 Sydney Mornings (1:38:19)
https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/sydney-mornings/mornings/105362386

Kathryn Robinson

Australia's national telecommunications network is becoming increasingly reliant on Elon Musk's Starlink satellites. Yesterday, major telco Telstra launched its mobile-to-satellite text messaging service to keep people in mobile black spots connected, and it is delivered by SpaceX Starlink. Hundreds of thousands of Australians living in rural areas already rely on Starlink for their internet and emergency services. Services are using it to keep communications up and running in a natural disaster. But just how dependent should we be on Elon Musk's satellite service? And is there any homegrown competition to this technology? Well, the communications industry body is Communications Alliance Limited. And in that membership is Starlink, Telstra and Optus. The chief executive is Luke Coleman. And he's with me now. Good morning, Luke.

Luke Coleman

Good morning. Thanks for having me.

Kathryn Robinson

Yeah, not at all. Just how much do we rely on Starlink right now?

Luke Coleman

While Starlink is the first of what we call low Earth orbit satellites or LEO satellites, what we're seeing in this recent announcement with Telstra and Starlink is using the Starlink satellite system for very basic services at the moment. It's just for text messages. It is a low data system compared to what you would usually expect on a 4G or a 5G network. But in future, we hope that we can see voice on this system as well, as well as doing data on this system.

But if you look at some of the other systems that are already live out there, for example, more recent smartphone models like Apple's iPhone, for example, it has a separate system that also uses satellites for emergency text messages.

And I think we can expect to see that expanded in future as well. So we're already seeing competition in the market that it's not solely reliant on the Starlink system, although Telstra's system in this particular case is, but there is more competition to come.

Kathryn Robinson

Can you quantify it? You say we're not solely reliant, but would you say at the moment Starlink's got a certain percentage of the market?

Luke Coleman

Certainly when it comes to LEO satellites. Starlink is by far the biggest and the most global system. Now, there are budding competitors coming along. Amazon is probably the largest example. They flagged plans for what they call the Amazon Kuiper low-Earth orbit satellite system. There is also another operator called OneWeb. They have services that are live at the moment. But when it comes to this particular use case, being text messages to a standard mobile phone with no special features, you are right that Starlink at the moment is the only system that is providing that service.

Kathryn Robinson

Okay. And national telcos other than Telstra buying into this technology, can you give us a bit of a lay of the land, why they're doing so and who is doing so?

Luke Coleman

Certainly all of the telcos in Australia, the three major mobile network providers, Telstra, Optus and TPG, which owns the Vodafone brand, are all looking into using this technology or trialling it in some way. Now, the government, in the lead-up to the election, actually announced a policy that will make this a requirement for mobile operators to work with satellite providers to provide coverage to 100% of Australia's landmass.

So if you look at mobile coverage today, the various mobile operators will tell you that they provide coverage to 99.5% of the population or 98.4% of the population. But when we're talking about the population, that is a very different thing to geographic coverage of Australia's landmass, that even a network that provides coverage to more than 99% of where people live and work probably still only provides coverage to less than 40% of Australia's ginormous landmass.

So having LEO satellites as a fallback option when you're out of terrestrial coverage range, particularly when you're out in regional and remote areas, it's a fantastic option to stay connected.

Now, it does not deliver the same level of service that you'd be used to when you've got terrestrial mobile coverage. In this particular case, it's just text messages. In future, as the technology becomes more developed, we're going to see voice services, and we may even see Are there reasons to be concerned in your view?

Kathryn Robinson

I mean, some security experts say you have to separate Musk's politics from his technology. But can you disagree with his politics but still like his products, I guess? Because we've seen recent events that have really demonstrated Mr. Musk's willingness to intervene in global politics.

Luke Coleman

When it comes to Starlink, if we can separate the technology from the individual here, there is really nothing in the world quite like it right now. As I've mentioned, while there is competition coming, LEO satellites are a brand-new technology. They are a revolutionary technology when it comes to connectivity.

Kathryn Robinson

Well, the technology you're saying is a good thing. Can you really separate the owner from the technology? If I can use the Ukraine example, after Musk was initially enthusiastic about Ukraine's defence, he abruptly limited the country's use of Starlink for offensive military operations. Is it actually possible to separate the owner, whoever the owner might be, from the technology?

Luke Coleman

I think in future competition will be the solution to that. But at the moment, you are right in saying Starlink is the only network that is capable of providing this at the moment. Now, that comes with a range of risks. Whenever you have a monopoly provider, there are risks associated with that, whether it's commercial risks or technological risks or a range of other things. So I think with the arrival of Amazon Kuiper in coming years, with the growing presence of OneWeb, with other operators on the horizon, that will provide a lot more assurance for people. And certainly as an operator, whether you're Telstra, Optus or Vodafone, having a range of different providers that they could choose to partner with will mean that any risks associated with a monopoly provider are going to be reduced.

And I would add on top of that, you’ve got other massive global companies like Apple, which have their own proprietary system established with a separate satellite provider so that Apple can do emergency text messages if you've got one of the more recent Apple handsets. Samsung is going down a similar path, I believe Google is as well. So I think that the best answer to mitigate that risk is having more competition in the market, and we're seeing that emerging.

Kathryn Robinson

Well, let's talk about that. You are listening to 702 ABC Radio Sydney, and I'm speaking to Luke Coleman from the Communications Industry Body, Communications Alliance. Let’s talk about the competitive space. Where does the competition come from? Are there any homegrown satellite companies?

Luke Coleman

In Australia, the National Broadband Network, NBN, has two satellites, which they call the Skymaster satellites. Now, these are traditional satellites, or what we call geo-satellites. A geo-satellite sits about 36,000 kilometres in the Earth's orbit. So those two satellites provide a huge coverage range across not only Australia's mainland, but all of our external territories as well, from the Fiji Islands to Lord Howe Island and Norfolk Island. Now, that technology, which has been used for most of the recent history of satellites, is better for broadcast technologies, such as pay TV services. But compared to LEO satellites like Starlink and Amazon Kuiper, it provides lower data speeds.

So if you look at NBN SkyMuster satellites, when they launched back in 2015, they were state-of-the-art. They were the best in the world. They were delivering broadband speeds of up to 25 megabits per second, and that was a really cutting-edge technology. Fast forward 10 years, when those satellites had launched, nobody saw LEO satellites coming. It is a really new technology. And so we've seen reductions in the number of people using the SkyMuster satellites because people have been voting with their wallets and using Starlink.

But we need to remember that many advantages are attached to having Australian-owned satellites, like SkyMuster with NBN. While there's fewer users on them compared to a couple of years ago, that means that there's more capacity on the network available for those users. They’re going to get better services and better speeds because there's fewer people on there. It also means they're Australian-owned, they are owned by NBN Co, which is a government business, and so we have a much higher degree of control over those satellites. So certainly there is. A homegrown alternative. It is a different technology, but it does suit many users. Needs, particularly in regional and remote parts of Australia.

Kathryn Robinson

So then finally, Luke, in a perfect world, what is the best option for Australia look like when it comes to communications via satellite?

Luke Coleman

The best option is to have as many options as possible would be my response.

Kathryn Robinson

Well, we will definitely keep this conversation going given the moving space in this market. Luke Coleman, thank you.

Luke Coleman

Thanks so much for having me on the program.