If you're looking for updates on Starlink's expansion, you need to know how this satellite broadband provider is making rapid inroads in Oceania.
As of November 2025, Starlink’s services are live in more than a dozen countries and overseas territories in Oceania, giving it near-ubiquitous coverage of the region.
One of the most compelling aspects of Starlink’s service is its ability to deliver high-speed, low-latency connectivity.
Previously, satellite internet services came from single geostationary satellites that orbit the planet at 35,786 km. By contrast, Starlink has a constellation of thousands of satellites orbiting the planet much closer to Earth—at around 550 km—delivering far lower latency.
Its high-speed, low-latency services are useful in a region where many rural localities have poor or non-existent fixed and/or mobile network connectivity. Starlink has also highlighted its potential as a backup network during natural disasters, and this has been very much in evidence in Oceania.
Quick Background on Starlink
SpaceX launched its first 60 Starlink low earth orbit satellites in May 2019. Starlink started providing a beta service in October 2020 and went live one year later. It hit the one million subscription mark in December 2022, before reaching two million in September 2023, three million in May 2024, four million in September 2024 and five million in March 2025. Most recently, the company announced that it had passed the seven million subscriptions milestone in August 2025.
According to astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell’s satellite tracker, as of early November 2025, there were 8,837 satellites in orbit, with 7,559 in “operational orbit.”
Starlink is optimistic of eventually increasing its mega-constellation to more than 44,988 satellites.
Starlink in Australia and New Zealand
Starlink launched in Australia in April 2021, offering a trial version of its service in northern Victoria and southern New South Wales (NSW). In the following months it initially focused on serving ‘low and remote density areas’ but, having progressively enhanced coverage throughout 2022, in November that year the operator was reported to have achieved nationwide coverage.
July 2023 also saw Starlink and Optus strike a deal to deliver mobile connectivity using the former’s satellite constellation, with a view to extending coverage to ‘100% of Australia’. Through its agreement with SpaceX, Optus said it would work to expand the reach of customers’ mobile connectivity to include the 60% of Australia’s territory lacking mobile coverage, with this to be achieved through a phased rollout of SpaceX’s satellite capability.
In the event, however, Optus was beaten to the punch by chief rival Telstra. In January 2025 it was announced that Telstra and Starlink would collaborate on bringing satellite-to-mobile (direct-to-handset) text messaging to the telco’s mobile customers and a commercial launch of such services was confirmed in June 2025.
In February 2023 Starlink reached the 100,000 subscriptions milestone in Australia, going on to reach 200,000 in March 2024. TeleGeography estimates that Starlink now has well over 300,000 subscriptions on its books.
The company began taking pre-orders in neighbouring New Zealand in February 2021 and went on to launch services later that year, with availability initially restricted to only a limited number of users per coverage area on a first come, first served basis. The satellite service expands the options available to rural consumers not connected to the country’s Ultra-Fast Broadband (UFB) network, particularly in those areas where, due to limited capacity, there is a waiting list for fixed wireless broadband services provided under the Rural Broadband Initiative (RBI) program.
Offering download speeds almost five times faster than competing 4G-based fixed wireless connections, Starlink has been described as a ‘disruptive’ force in the rural market by the telecoms regulator, the Commerce Commission. This impact is reflected in its rapid subscriber growth, which climbed from approximately 11,000 in mid-2022 to roughly 58,000 by June 2024. TeleGeography estimates the figure had risen to 86,500 by 30 September 2025.
Pacific Power-Player?
While getting its service up and running in Australia and New Zealand was Starlink’s undoubted priority, the company has also pursued opportunities across the Pacific region – extending its services to multiple territories in quick succession.
Indeed, the company has even deployed Community Gateways in Nauru and Kosrae (a state in the Federated States of Micronesia). Starlink describes the facilities as follows: ‘With Community Gateways, Starlink satellites are able to deliver fiber-like speeds with local providers distributing connectivity to homes, businesses, and governments using last-mile fiber, fixed wireless and mobile wireless. The Community Gateway traffic transits through Starlink's global laser mesh network and utilizes our high bandwidth Gateways operating in a dedicated Ka spectrum band.’
Nauru’s Gateway—reportedly the first in the Pacific —went live in December 2024, and Kosrae’s Gateway went live in February 2025.
Elsewhere in the Pacific, Starlink is also up and running in the likes of American Samoa, the Cook Islands, Fiji, Guam, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, the Northern Mariana Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands and Tuvalu.
Starlink in Disaster Zones
As mentioned earlier, Starlink has positioned itself as a key player in terms of disaster communications, especially in locations where submarine cables are susceptible to natural disasters.
In July 2024 Tonga’s Ministry of Meteorology, Energy, Information, Disaster Management, Environment and Climate Change granted Starlink a temporary permit to provide services in the Pacific nation. The authorities had previously ordered Starlink to disable access by roaming customers using illegally imported terminals following earthquake damage to the Tonga Domestic Cable Extension (TDCE), which has disrupted broadband services on the islands of Vava’u and Ha’apai since 29 June that year. In the event, Starlink’s license in Tonga was made official in December 2024.
Immediately after a 7.3 magnitude earthquake struck Vanuatu in December 2024, causing an outage of the country’s sole submarine cable, the Interchange Cable Network 1 (ICN1), Starlink called upon to maintain communication links. As traditional broadband access failed, more than 300 Starlink units were quickly deployed, restoring connectivity for residents, businesses and emergency services. Indeed, the Vanuatu Business Resilience Council (VBRC) noted that it secured Starlink equipment to restore communications for the National Disaster Management Office (NDMO).
Dead Air: Starlink Stand-Offs
Despite Starlink enjoying a warm welcome in most territories, it has received pushback from a number of governments, who have been reluctant to disrupt the status quo.
In July 2023 the National Information and Communications Technology Authority (NICTA) in Papua New Guinea issued a public statement objecting to the unauthorised usage of Starlink terminals in the country.
Confusingly, NICTA went on to grant Starlink a licence in December 2023, only for the Ombudsman Commission to intervene and halt the licensing process. In January 2025 the subject of Starlink’s licensing went before the courts.
Elsewhere, France's most remote Pacific territory Wallis and Futuna is one of a handful of locations that are still technically off-limits for Starlink. However, residents are keen to figure out a workaround. Senator Mikaele Kulimoetoke, the former president of the Wallisian Territorial Assembly, told Le Monde: "People have bought the Starlink connection kit here in France, because it's cheaper, and installed it successfully. … And since France has said yes to Starlink on its territory, I can't see myself supporting a banning decision in Wallis that is likely to become ridiculous over time.”
French Polynesia (an overseas collectivity of France) and New Caledonia (a sui generis collectivity of France) are also conspicuous by their absence on Starlink’s list of markets where its services are commercially available.
Over in the western Pacific Ocean the government of Palau says it has no plans to authorise the use of Starlink terminals any time soon.
Finally, in Niue, the government has banned the use of Starlink, warning users of fines or imprisonment for unauthorised use. The people using Starlink on the island reportedly purchased their units from retail outlets in New Zealand, with Starlink declining requests to geo-block Niue-based connectivity. Fellow satellite provider Kacific continues to operate legally on the island.
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