STARLINK SATELLITE COMES TO THE MOUNTAINS

Blue Mountains residents desperate for a reliable internet connection have begun ditching the failing NBN and linking up to Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite service, delivering speeds unheard of on the area’s current system, according to Federal Member for Macquarie Susan Templeman.

Ms Templeman has visited the Katoomba home of broadcaster and co-founder of the DoSomething Foundation, Jon Dee, who is believed to be among the first in the Mountains to sign up to the satellite service.

Mr Dee has world-class equipment at his Katoomba base, but unreliable internet service was severely impacting his business, limiting what he could offer his international clients and increasing his costs.

“Fibre To The Node (FTTN) – which is what everywhere from Lawson to Mt Victoria are connected with - is simply archaic for what businesses like Jon’s need to deliver in a global environment,” Ms Templeman said.

“Living 700 metres away from the nearest node only added to his woes, so Jon decided to install the Starlink service.

“Jon tells me he now generally gets 250 Mbps per second download from the small satellite dish receiver that sits on his roof - and when I visited it was 275 Mbps. It’s easy to install - you just turn it on, and it sets itself up to pick up a signal.

“While that’s great news for his business, if we’d had fibre rolled out to each home as originally planned, people would not be turning to alternatives.

“Unfortunately, not everyone can afford or justify the additional costs involved in a Starlink system, but others are ditchi