The NBN geostationary service's latency averaged 664.9 milliseconds across all hours, compared to just 29.8 milliseconds on LEO rival Starlink.
The findings will be a further blow to NBN, with critics arguing the federal government made the wrong call by launching two GEO satellites for $2 billion in 2015.
“While the latency is stable during busy hour congestion, its high duration is likely to hinder activities that require real-time responsiveness,” concluded the Measuring Broadband Australia program on Sky Muster’s service.
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“Users relying on Sky Muster for such applications may experience delays, but the service remains predictable in its performance.”
The findings are the first since the competition regulator’s quarterly report into broadband performance was expanded to include satellite providers and marks arguably the most authoritative assessment of performance ever released.
Starlink connections were also significantly faster than the government-backed service, with peak speeds of 470 Mbps for downloads and 74 Mbps for uploads, compared to NBN’s 111 Mbps and 22 Mbps, respectively.
LEO satellite constellations, such as Starlink, offer quicker services than traditional geostationary satellites, such as NBN Muster, because they are closer to Earth.
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However, the lower height also means LEOs effectively cover a smaller area and, therefore, need to operate in larger, connected constellations to be effective.
Starlink, a subsidiary of SpaceX, has the advantage of being able to launch thousands of satellites without paying external customers because it operates its own reusable rockets.
It’s currently thought there are more than 6,000 Starlink satellites in orbit.
“The high latency of the Sky Muster satellite service is primarily due to the significant distance that signals must travel to and from the satellite’s geostationary orbit, approximately 35,786 km above the Earth’s equator,” said the report.
“This journey includes an uplink from the user’s device to the satellite, a relay to a ground station, and a return trip.”
The ACCC’s latest Measuring Broadband Australia program was based on data measurements taken from 1 September to 30 September 2024 from 298 separate connections.
It comes after Space Connect reported in October how Optus would join Telstra to offer traditional Starlink installations to business customers.
That itself comes before Optus’ longer-term, ambitious plan to offer a “straight-to-mobile” service to those living in remote areas.
The agreement is unique because it will not require customers to obtain any specific hardware and will instead work on all compatible handsets.
Currently, the telco’s traditional service is unavailable across 60 per cent of Australia’s landmass, but the new tie-up will boost connectivity to almost 100 per cent.
Adam Thorn
Adam is a journalist who has worked for more than 40 prestigious media brands in the UK and Australia. Since 2005, his varied career has included stints as a reporter, copy editor, feature writer and editor for publications as diverse as Fleet Street newspaper The Sunday Times, fashion bible Jones, media and marketing website Mumbrella as well as lifestyle magazines such as GQ, Woman’s Weekly, Men’s Health and Loaded. He joined Momentum Media in early 2020 and currently writes for Australian Aviation and World of Aviation.
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