I’m angry. And it’s about more than Elon Musk.

Why the Starlink controversy in Ukraine should concern every regional Australian business.

I am angry. I’m angry about reports that Ukraine’s military has faced sudden restrictions on Starlink communications during a war in which reliable communications can be critical to military operations and defence.

I’m angry that access to technology critical to the defence of a sovereign nation, especially one under attack by another country’s military, can be directly affected by decisions made by a handful of powerful people and institutions.

And I’m angry because, as a small business owner in regional Western Australia, I had a very uncomfortable realisation.

I don’t want to give my money to Elon Musk. But I don’t really have a choice.

There are enormous differences between Ukraine defending itself against invasion and a small consultancy trying to do its work in regional Australia. I know that. I’m not comparing the consequences.

But the question the news raised for me is still worth asking: what happens when something essential to your ability to function is controlled by an organisation you cannot realistically afford to walk away from?

The details of the restrictions are still being contested. Ukrainian officials reported sudden speed limits affecting military satellite communications, disrupting operations. Musk initially said decisions about restrictions on Starshield, the military version of Starlink, rested with the US government. Since then, reports have conflicted. Some, citing officials and people familiar with the matter, suggest Musk was directly involved in the decision; others place it with the White House. Questions remain about who authorised the restrictions and why.

What is beyond dispute, however, is how vulnerable essential communications become when decisions made far away can have immediate consequences for those who depend on them.

I run a business from a laptop. Why do I need a satellite?

I live and work in Kalgoorlie-Boulder. The Wander Collective is a small Western Australian consultancy. We spend our days in Microsoft Teams meetings, working on shared documents, using SharePoint and other cloud services, and communicating with clients.

That is ordinary business work now, but it still depends on a reliable internet connection.

At my premises, the NBN service available to me was Fibre to the Node. My iiNet bill from June 2025 lists an NBN100/20 FTTN plan at $94.99 a month. In practice, the connection did not reliably support the way we needed to work. Teams calls froze. Shared documents failed to sync properly. We would be working on the same file and then discover that changes had not come through.

So I moved to Starlink. My July 2026 invoice for the month from 21 July to 21 August totals $225, including $210 for Roam Unlimited and $15 for Standby Mode. That is not a like-for-like comparison between two identical services. It is the amount on the Starlink invoice I am paying now, after the fixed-line service available to me failed to meet our day-to-day needs.

We work across the breadth of Western Australia and travel extensively to deliver our services. Reliable internet access isn’t just something we need at our desks. We need it on the road, in regional towns and in remote locations where connectivity can be even more challenging. The mobility that Starlink offers is a practical necessity for our business, not a luxury.

I didn’t choose satellite internet because I wanted the newest technology. I chose it because, based on what was available at my address and my experience using it, it was the practical option that let us run the business.

The ACCC’s April 2026 Measuring Broadband Australia report found that 11.8 per cent of the FTTN services in its sample were underperforming. That does not prove anything about every FTTN connection, or about my individual line. It does show that problems with some FTTN services are measurable. NBN Co has since said that more than 99 per cent of the approximately 600,000 premises remaining in its FTTN upgrade program are expected to be able to access an FTTP upgrade by December 2030. That is welcome investment. It does not solve the problem for a business that needs a workable connection today, and it does not tell me when an upgrade will be available at my address. Even then, fibre at my office won’t help us on the road.

A choice that exists on paper

People often say that if we don’t like a company, we can take our business elsewhere. That advice assumes there is somewhere else to go.

I can change retail internet providers. But if the infrastructure available at my address cannot deliver a service that works for my business, changing the name on the bill won’t give me a meaningful alternative.

The reality is, Starlink has made a real difference for us and I’m grateful the service exists. But gratitude for a service is not the same as wanting to support the company behind it, and it should not be the only practical option.

I don’t want a special advantage. I’m just looking for a reasonable standard of reliable, affordable connectivity regardless of postcode. I want to be able to run an ordinary consulting business in an ordinary regional city without paying a premium for a service I would rather not depend on. I want a genuine choice about where my business spends its money.

Jade and I founded Wander because we believe in regional Western Australia. We work alongside people trying to build stronger local economies and communities. We talk about attracting businesses, investment and skilled people to the regions. But we can’t have that conversation honestly if we ignore whether existing businesses can access the basic infrastructure they need to operate.

This is not a call to punish one company for building a service that works where other options have not. Starlink has filled a gap for many regional and remote customers. The harder question is why that gap is still there, and what it says about the choices available to people who live and work outside the metropolitan areas.

The reports from Ukraine have made me think about dependence in a way I can’t shake. In Ukraine, the consequences of changes to military communications can be immediate and grave. Here, my situation is entirely different, but in both cases, the question of who controls essential communications matters. And in regional Australia, so does the question of what happens when the alternative is not good enough.

If governments want businesses to set up and grow in Country WA, reliable and affordable connectivity cannot be treated as a future aspiration. It is part of what makes it possible to do business here now.

We need continued investment in regional telecommunications infrastructure, genuine competition between services and an understanding that connectivity is an economic necessity, not a regional luxury.

I’m angry about what’s happening in Ukraine. I’m angry that my business has so little practical choice about the service it needs. And I’m angry that regional businesses are still expected to build a future on infrastructure that does not reliably meet their needs.

A business should be able to choose its internet provider because that provider is the right fit, not because the other options don’t work.

Photograph: Kevin Dietsch/Getty