Starlink dishes are popping up at campsites across Australia as grey nomads and van life families increasingly want to stay connected to the internet even when they venture off the beaten track.
A photo shared this week on the Starlink Users Australia Facebook group showed rows of signs at a campsite in the Northern Territory, with pots and traffic cones placed next to them to prevent them being knocked over.
The portable dishes connect to satellites from the American company SpaceX, which provide access to super-fast internet from almost anywhere in the world.
Other photos of the group showed the signs displayed on the roof of an 4×4, on the dashboard of a van and on a picnic table at an Outback campsite.
One photo even showed someone making a makeshift weatherproof enclosure by drilling a hole in a plastic storage box for the electrical cord and sealing it with silicone, which they said still gave a good signal.
The service was previously fixed to a home address, but from 2022 customers who pay extra will be able to take their dish with them when they travel and it should work anywhere in the country. There will also be a model that fits in a backpack.
According to users, the dishes are not just for watching Netflix or staying in touch with emails and phone calls to civilization.
“For anyone who wants to homeschool, for anyone who wants to be on the go and run their business… this is the best solution,” one user told Yahoo News.
A photo recently shared on Facebook of a NT campsite shows how widespread the dishes are
The rise of the #vanlife trend over the past decade, which has seen influencers take to the road and blog about their experiences, is expected to be further boosted by new technology.
But some who want to return to nature complain that their experience is being ruined.
“YouTubers post directions to some awesome place that no one knows about, then every weekend 20 groups show up and trash it,” someone recently said on a Reddit camping forum.
Others complained about overflowing garbage bins, SUVs tearing up the grass and vans parked and blocking the view or access of other visitors.
A well-prepared traveler had placed his Starlink dish on a trailer
Many shared photos they had taken of the bowls marked with traffic cones or brightly colored pots to prevent them from being hit by cars
SpaceX owner Elon Musk recently thanked Tesla shareholders for approving his $56 billion pay package.
He now runs six companies, including SpaceX, Tesla, the social media giant X (formerly Twitter) and the artificial intelligence company xAI, which Musk founded in 2023.
Tesla shares have fallen nearly 60 percent since their 2021 peak, when Musk began selling billions of dollars worth of stock, partly to finance his acquisition of Twitter, raising concerns that he had too much capital.
SpaceX went from a loss a few years ago to a profit of about $3 billion in 2023, largely thanks to Starlink customers.
The company has launched approximately 6,000 satellites into low Earth orbit and has more than 2.6 million customers, including many businesses and governments.