I feel it was only yesterday that I sat down with a coffee and a laptop and decided to talk about backup Internet in a business context. Turns out it was the 26th of December - Yep Boxing Day - because when you're running a small business there's never really a time to stop. If you're dependent on the Internet for business operations (which is almost everyone nowadays) then your Internet connection needs to work as hard (and as tirelessly) as you do.
At AFSecure we share our own solutions and we share customer stories (with permission). We share what works, and today I'm sharing what hasn't.
Back when I wrote that December 2025 post, Starlink was my ultimate backup solution. I had a 5G connection to handle connectivity "dips" and Starlink as my break-glass solution for when things really go wrong. As I'm writing this post, it's the 27th of June. My Starlink subscription ends today.
The Standby Timeline: A History of Moving Goalposts
I value stability in the services my business relies upon and Starlink has been anything but. I don't mean stability in the "is my Internet stable" sense. I mean it to describe their behaviour.
- Before August 2025, if you had a Starlink Roam plan, you could pause it when it wasn't needed - dropping your cost to $0 and un-pause it when required. A perfect backup option.
- Then in the August > September 2025 time-frame "Standby Mode" replaced pause. They killed pausing but offered this as an upgrade. Yes, you suddenly had to pay $8.50 AUD for the privilege of standby mode but you got a trickle of data (500Kbps) which is just enough to send and receive an email. Slowly. Without attachments.
- Come March 2026, Starlink ended "In-Motion" mode. This was a hit to users who rely upon Standby mode for their caravan or on-the-road travelers. In my case the dish stays connected to my roof, ready to leap to action so it's not an issue. If I take it on the road with me, it's because I've gone camping and I promised a client I'll stay on half-days while I'm remote. An annoying change but immaterial to my use case.
- Finally we hit May 2026 - Standby mode is jumping from $8.50AUD to $15AUD. While $15 isn't going to bankrupt a business, a sudden near-doubling of the price for a dormant service proved just how aggressively Starlink could alter OPEX without warning.
Let that settle in for a moment... In less than 12 months, Starlink took a free feature, started charging for it, stripped away its mobility, and then nearly doubled its price.
When the May announcement came in I collected my thoughts and re-considered my options. Starlink is proving far too volatile. It's time to look for a better option.
Rethinking the Stack: Enter Launtel and Dual NBN
When the price hike was announced, I took a step back to reconsider our options. We needed a backup strategy that offered commercial predictability without sacrificing technical resilience.
Enter Launtel. We want to be completely clear: AFSecure is not sponsored by Launtel. We have no relationship with them other than as customers. We pride ourselves on remaining strictly vendor-agnostic so we can recommend what genuinely fits your business. However, Launtel offers a highly unique feature that solves the backup dilemma perfectly: pay-by-the-day NBN plans.
Instead of paying an ongoing monthly fee for a connection we rarely use, we can leave a secondary NBN service paused and ready to activate the moment it's needed.
To achieve ultimate flexibility, we actually expanded our strategy. To save money and increase reliability, we now utilise four distinct internet pathways.
Four-Tiered Connection Strategy
Here's the thing that will really blow your mind. To save money I now have four Internet connections, one up from my previous three. Let me explain:
- My primary ISP is still my primary ISP. NBN via FTTP, monthly charge, everything you're familiar with.
- My secondary ISP for "dips" is still a 5G router. The fact I can purchase a yearly data plan and leave it to sit there still makes this ideal for brief outage moments and a poor choice for sustained outages.
- My third ISP is Launtel. It's a second NBN connection delivered by FTTP. It shares the same NTD as my primary connection. If my ISP is having a sustained outage I can activate my Launtel connection. If I have a project that's really taxing my internet connection, I can even activate Launtel in load-balancing mode with my primary ISP and increase my available bandwidth for a short duration.
- My fourth ISP is Starlink. Yes you read that correctly.
The reality is My first, second and third connections are great except for the scenario where someone digs up the fibre cable in my street. Starlink still has a role to play, but I have diminished it as much as possible. At midnight tonight the dish is no longer activated via Standby mode and I'll take if off the roof tomorrow so it's not longer drawing power. I have decided with my alternative connections ready to go, I'm willing to eat the time it takes to unpack and mount the dish.
In the photo above, the pink cable is my primary ISP and the blue cable is Launtel. They share the NTD, they share the fibre. Unfortunately it's the greatest weakness to this solution.
So that's a bit of effort to remove Starlink, only to keep using Starlink.
The reality is I'm trying to reduce my reliance on Starlink as a business, but I'm aware that until someone offers a competing LEO service or an Australian carrier offers a competitive alternative via 5G they'll still have a role to play.
I'd stick with them if it weren't for the moving goal posts:
- Unpredictable Operating Costs (OPEX): As a small business, I want accurate forecasting. When a provider nearly doubles the cost of a standby service overnight, it sets a worrying precedent.
- Shifting Terms of Service: A solid Business Continuity Plan (BCP) needs a foundation that doesn't move. Starlink has a habit of abruptly altering the rules; such as changing what you can and can't do on their Standby and Roam plans, or tweaking how data caps are enforced.
- A Consumer-First Mentality: Many of Starlink's sweeping changes are clearly aimed at managing their massive consumer base, like seasonal caravan travellers or heavy home streamers. Unfortunately, SMEs using the service for critical redundancy end up caught in the crossfire.
- The Unnecessary Administrative Burden: As a business decision-maker, your time is valuable. You shouldn't have to constantly monitor your backup internet provider's news updates just to check if your service has been re-priced or restructured.
Unfortunately we live in the era of enshittification, where the game plan for large tech providers is to release a good value service, wait until businesses and consumers alike are hooked and then maximise the squeeze they can get from their customers. Your only real defence is to keep your ear to the ground and be ready to move once the value evaporates. It's for this reason my backup strategy was highly modular and easy to shuffle around. If you need help getting the same flexibility and resilience into the heart of your business, contact AFSecure for a free consultation.