Source: Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions
ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND THE DIGITAL ECONOMY DR ANDREW CHARLTON: Terrific. Well, welcome everybody. It is terrific to be here with Minister Wells. Thank you, Ellie and the team at NBN for hosting us. Thanks to the folks from Amazon for being here for this game changing announcement.
As the Assistant Minister for the Digital Economy, I know that digital connectivity is the foundation of our economic growth and our productivity into the future. And the biggest opportunity we have to lift our national productivity is to lift up those areas of our nation that have been left behind.
Too many Australians in regional, rural and remote Australia have been living without fast and reliable broadband for too long and this has been holding back the businesses, the students and the communities in those areas of our country.
For today’s historic announcement between NBN Co and Amazon, changes that reality for hundreds of thousands of Australians. It will provide city quality, fast, reliable broadband in regional areas of Australia.
And that fast, reliable broadband is the driver that will enable new businesses, support the curiosity and learning of students, enable communities to connect and grow our economy in those regional areas and make them full participants in Australia’s future digital economy.
So, thank you very much to all everyone who’s been involved in this announcement, and I’ll hand over to Minister Wells.
MINISTER FOR COMMUNICATIONS ANIKA WELLS: Thank you, Andrew. Thank you to Ellie Sweeney and to Amazon’s Lisa Scalpone for coming all the way to Sydney for this big announcement.
This beautiful country that we call home is intangibly unique. Australia is the world’s largest island, and it is the sixth biggest country on the earth.
Yet this vast nation holds just three-and-a-half people per square kilometre, one of the lowest population densities in the world. This combination ensures that connection is an evergreen challenge for us. From Broome to Bendigo, from the Pilbara to Palm Island, Australians yearn and deserve to be connected. And today we reach another major milestone on our mission for no one to be left behind.
Today we can announce that NBN has reached agreement with Amazon’s Project Kuiper to bring city quality broadband to remote Australia. The agreement will deliver high-speed broadband to regional, rural and remote Australia via low earth orbit satellite technology, 600 kilometres above our heads. Being more connected means Australians living anywhere will be better off, whether that is working from home, managing a regional business, accessing telehealth, video conferencing or online learning.
It will also help regional Australians to stay informed during natural disasters.
And speed matters – independent Accenture research shows a higher capacity, lower latency NBN network will boost GDP by about $400 billion by 2030.
Whether you live in the city or on the outskirts of town, or kilometres from your nearest neighbour, our government’s mission is for homes and businesses to access fast and reliable broadband, either through fibre, fixed wireless or from next year, low earth orbit satellite technology.
The Albanese Government knows that technological transitions can create uncertainty. That’s why I have asked the NBN to consult closely with regional communities as it transitions customers from Sky Muster satellites to the new LEO satellites. Project Kuiper is a game changing announcement that will help Australia to retain its uniqueness whilst ensuring that no one is left behind.
And now I’d like to hand over to Ellie Sweeney, CEO of NBN Co, who will take you through that technology and the agreement in detail.
NBN CO CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, ELLIE SWEENEY: Thank you, Minister. Hi, good morning everybody, it’s great to have people in the room and also I know we’ve got a number of people online. So look, thank you Minister Wells and Minister Charlton. It is an absolute honour for us to have you both here today in our Discovery Centre for what is not only an important announcement, it’s an important moment in NBN’s history.
I’d like to extend a very warm welcome to Lisa Scalpone. Lisa has just come in from Chicago. She is the head of worldwide consumer at Amazon Project Kuiper and she is, as I’ve just mentioned, she’s based in Colorado in the US.
I am delighted to also welcome Kristy Sparrow. Kristy is over here and Kristy, who may be known to some of you, is the co-founder for Better Internet for Regional, Rural and Remote Australia. And she’s travelled more than 1500 kilometres to be here with us from Alpha in Queensland, Australia. And I think again, Kristy very kindly is going to be available to talk with you after the proceedings today. Kristy is also a passionate advocate for regional telecommunications and she knows first-hand the benefit of low latency fast broadband for the bush.
At NBN our story is one of national purpose and of nation building, and it is centred around a commitment to developing or delivering rather the digital infrastructure that supports how Australians live, how we work and how we connect. And that’s not just for today, it’s into the future.
So, whether you live in Sydney or on the edge of a regional town, whether you live on a remote cattle station, every Australian deserves secure, resilient, fast and affordable broadband. Which is why today’s announcement, which I’m so pleased again to make alongside Minister Wells and Minister Charlton and our partners at Amazon Kuiper, is such a significant step forward in delivering that ambition.
This announcement means that more than 300,000 homes and businesses become eligible within our geostationary satellite footprint, become eligible to upgrade to NBN’s residential grade LEO satellite services delivering high speed and low latency broadband connectivity.
Our two geostationary satellites exist today, so those Sky Muster satellites have served remote Australia, we think with distinction over the last decade, but times change and technology evolves and Project Kuiper is one of the finest examples we think of where what’s possible, where innovation meets that ambition.
We hear a lot about a data drought in the bush, but here at NBN we have a goal to make buffering in the bush a thing of the past. With full fibre in many areas already today, upgraded fixed wireless in others and now LEO satellites, we’re committed to making an end to that data drought. Upgrading from our geostationary satellites and offering a LEO satellite broadband backed by Project Kuiper continues our NBN journey of connecting people and powering progress and that’s in regional, remote and rural Australia. So today marks the first step in this exciting new chapter we think for rural and remote connectivity. We always knew that our Sky Muster satellites would reach their end of life in the early 2030s and we’ve been planning to ensure that we have the right technology in place well beyond well before rather our existing satellite fleet is retired. So now that the agreement with Amazon’s Project Kuiper is signed, our focus shifts immediately to comprehensive consultation.
And over the coming months, we’ll be working closely with internet providers, with regulators, with regional stakeholders and community groups to shape the product offerings. And that’s from our speed tiers and our wholesale pricing and also that upgrade process for our existing customers.
So while LEO services won’t be online for a little time yet, this consultation we believe is absolutely essential to ensure that the final product reflects the needs of the people and the communities who are going to rely on most.
We will be working closely with our participating retailers to ensure and prioritise a smooth upgrade and an orderly upgrade of those existing customers on Sky Muster. So today, I want to be very clear for our current Sky Muster customers, there is no immediate change. Sky Muster will continue to remain in service during this transition from Geo to LEO, and we’re going to keep our customers informed every step of the way.
So in conclusion, we at NBN are so proud of what Sky Muster has delivered for remote Australia over the last decade and it’s now time to evolve with full fibre in many areas in upgraded fixed wireless in other and now with LEO satellites, we’re committed to ending buffering in the bush. LEO sat technology is a powerful step forward.
It is purpose built for the most remote parts of this country that sit beyond the reach of fibre or fixed wireless and it delivers lower latency. It delivers better performance and greater reliability than the geostationary satellite services that it will replace.
NBN’s mission has always been clear and it’s to connect every home and business across Australia with the right technology for each location and with performance that meets the modern digital demand. And this announcement, we think, is the next step in our technology evolution because every person, regardless of where they live, deserves to have a broadband that is secure, that is resilient, that is robust, that is fast and that’s affordable.
It’s about turning investment into impact. It’s about innovation into inclusion and infrastructure into opportunity for the economy, for the communities and for every Australian home and business.
On that note, I’d really love to now invite Lisa. Lisa’s going to come up and provide a little bit more detail on what is planned with Project Kuiper and planned from a global LEOSat constellation and really importantly what it’s going to mean for Australia and our customers in that geostationary footprint today. Welcome, Lisa.
AMAZON PROJECT KUIPER HEAD OF WORLDWIDE CONSUMER, LISA SCALPONE: Good morning, Minister Wells, Minister Charlton. Ellie, thank you so much everyone for joining us here today. I am so honoured to be here to announce the partnership of NBN and Project Kuiper.
I just want to say at the outset, a tremendous thank you to the team at NBN for their partnership already to date and a thank you in advance for all the hard work and teamwork that’ll come in the months and years ahead of us to bring LEO broadband to rural and remote Australia.
Amazon started Project Kuiper in 2019 to bring world-class connectivity to more customers and communities around the world. We’re several years now into that journey and this agreement with NBN represents a really important step to us towards delivering on that mission. It’s especially important and special to Project Kuiper because it’s the first agreement for us of its kind anywhere in the world.
And, and one of the reasons why I think we are here today is because of the fit between NBN and Project Kuiper. We are thoroughly aligned on the mission together. We’re combining NBN’s deep expertise in serving Australian communities with Kuiper’s advanced LEO satellite network.
What we’re trying to create is something truly transformative. Together we will enable Australians in the most remote corners of this vast country to participate fully in the digital economy and society.
It’s a milestone moment, but what I want to say today is that we are committed to delivering a low latency, high performance, great service to 300,000 homes and businesses in rural and remote parts of Australia.
They will see significant improvements to their internet speed, latency and reliability as a result of this partnership. Millions of Australians live outside major urban centres. These homes deserve the same quality connectivity as their urban counterparts. As Ellie had just said, it doesn’t matter whether you’re running a business, accessing essential services, video calling with loved ones, streaming favourite sports, Project Kuiper and NBN will transform these everyday experiences.
We also will support the Australian Government’s productivity agenda.
Project Kuiper represents a new era in space-based Internet. Our network combines advanced satellites in low Earth orbit with high performance customer terminals and they’re very small and expansive ground infrastructure. This allows us to deliver new levels of speed and performance and low latency in remote locations.
So where are we today? We began deploying our satellites earlier this year. We’ve had three launches, satellite launches in less than three months and we are committed to increasing our production of satellites and launch rates as the year progresses. We are already looking forward to our initial service roll out in Australia starting from the middle of 2026.
Amazon’s already committed to investing more than $15 billion dollars into Project Kuiper globally and our team in Australia, while we’re still a little bit small, we’re growing fast as we ready for the service roll out next year.
We’re so proud to be working with NBN to help reach even more customers and communities. As we look ahead to our service launch, we’re committed to Australia, to the NBN and to the homes and people of Australia.
We are committed to delivering the best possible internet service. Today marks just the beginning of our journey and we couldn’t be more excited about the possibilities that this partnership will unlock. Thank you again.
JOURNALIST: I do have one. I guess the obvious question is why Kuiper versus say Starlink, for example, which already has a kind of operational constellation like are there advantages to the Kuiper deal that you can get from?
SWEENEY: Maybe let me take that one. Look, NBN is the statutory infrastructure provider here in Australia we’re the default provider. So it’s incumbent on us to be able to provide broadband access Australia. And so we went through a pretty rigorous and compelling, I think RFI and RFP process to provide wholesale broadband access via low Earth orbit.
So again, we’ve worked through a pretty complex negotiation to provide those wholesale broadband services via LEO.
We’ve had to take into account, I think you know, again, not only legal, regulatory, the commercial, the technical, the customer requirements as we’ve gone through that and we determined that Amazon was the best partner for us to deliver in terms of that wholesale access agreement.
The other thing is I think I’ve just mentioned is that you know, again our Geo stationary satellites are in life until you know the early 2030s. We’ve really got time to ensure that we again do great proof of concepts with Amazon. They will be in market next year and I think I can say it’s going to be in the lower half of Australia. Can I say that? In Tasmania and we’ll be working through beta testing and proof of concept. So I think in short, we’ve gone through a rigorous RFP process on this. We’ve been able to satisfy the due diligence and particularly around the ongoing investments that Amazon are making. And that’s obviously, you know, Lisa’s just mentioned a $15 billion investment in LEOSat on a global basis as well.
JOURNALIST: What’s the total cost of this arrangement with Amazon to the Australian taxpayer, have you made any upfront payments? How much is it going to cost over the long term?
SWEENEY: Yeah, I mean you won’t be surprised that the actual contract is is commercially in confidence. But in terms of the Australian taxpayer, NBN is funding this initiative. So again it’s funded by NBN. It is not funded by, you know, a taxpayer equity injection.
JOURNALIST: Do you expect that the wholesale pricing for this will be different compared to Sky Muster?
SWEENEY: Well, what I can say is we’re about to start consultation with a range of stakeholders around that pricing and that’ll be stakeholders from regional, from our RSPs. We’ll also be talking to our regulatory environment. So we’re really wanting and expecting to be able to put in what we think will be a comparable wholesale pricing arrangement as we do for our other technologies in fixed and in fixed wireless as well.
JOURNALIST: Historically Sky Muster has been classed as like a non commercial service is that going to be the same?
SWEENEY: Yeah. I mean again, you know, providing services through to regional and remote comes at a cost and often they are loss making. And again, that’s where I think this question of equity around NBN becomes so important around being able to provide services to someone sitting in North Sydney here or someone sitting in a remote and regional area as well.
JOURNALIST: Are there kind of commitments I guess around pricing stability and performance from Amazon?
SWEENEY: Yeah. But we’ve put in place, we think a pretty rigorous due diligence. We’ve put in place what we think is a supply arrangement, which is compelling and does take into account some of those challenges around pricing as well. And that’s obviously across the term of the contract.
JOURNALIST: You suggested that services would start in Tasmania, whether that’s actual provision of services or testing. Can you give us a sense of what the plan is state by state?
SWEENEY: Yeah, so look in terms of being able to talk further about the roll out of constellations, I might ask Amazon to do that. But I can tell you that we will be starting in Tasmania. It’s a great opportunity for us to obviously run beta testing. It’ll be a great opportunity for us to understand around both professional installs and potentially self installs as well. It will be a great opportunity for us to work with RSPs to make sure that we’re just delivering the best experience for customers who today are in that Geo satellite footprint. But I’m not sure if you want to give any update in terms of the actual roll out schedule across Australia as well?
SCALPONE: Yeah, so as you may know, LEO satellite constellations come in from the poles toward the towards the equator. And so, as a we will start south and go north, so that’s why we started in Tasmania in mid-2026.
Testing can be available earlier than the service roll out.
When we talk about mid-2026, we’re talking about regular commercial grade service that that comes online and then in a series of weeks and months we will complete the roll out of Australia going from south to north.
JOURNALIST: In terms of the Amazon deal, is there any exclusivity with NBN or is there any possibility of sellers outside NBN?
SWEENEY: Yeah, so the the deal is not exclusive with Amazon. What we’ve signed up for and our agreement around LEOSat is to provide LEOSat into that Geo stationary footprint, which today is about 300,000 homes and and businesses.
As you’re probably aware, we have a fixed line footprint, and we also have a fixed wireless footprint and that’s about 97% of the Australian homes and businesses are covered by that footprint. So that’s the last kind of up to 3% that’ll be covered by LEOSat.
So again, it’s it isn’t exclusive, but again, we have a very clear contract with Amazon to be able to deliver into that footprint.
JOURNALIST: Given that Amazon doesn’t actually have that many satellites yet in orbit, and it’s planning on sending thousands more up there, what what are the contingency plans if the expected services are actually slower than expected or … the technology doesn’t work?
SWEENEY: Look, we’re really confident in Amazon and in Project Kuiper. I mean, it’s been a big investment for Kuiper. Again, they’re planning to have 3,200 LEOSat constellations in the air. Again, there is some provisions within our contracts but again, we’re starting this with a very clear mindset that this is going to be successful. And again, all indications in terms of the three rocket launches and the fact that the satellites today are working absolutely as planned and indeed you can stream 4K on their satellites as well. So we’re confident in terms of the selection criteria that we’ve made.