Cape York & Torres Strait

Cape York & Torres Strait

The Cape and the Strait finally have internet good enough for a real phone system

The Cape and the Strait finally have internet good enough for a real phone system

The Cape and the Strait finally have internet good enough for a real phone system

Satellite used to mean dropped calls and dead air the moment it rained. That’s changed — and your phone system should catch up with it.

Satellite used to mean dropped calls and dead air the moment it rained. That’s changed — and your phone system should catch up with it.

Satellite used to mean dropped calls and dead air the moment it rained. That’s changed — and your phone system should catch up with it.

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The old problem
The old problem

Old satellite made a cloud phone system a hard sell

Old satellite made a cloud phone system a hard sell

Old satellite made a cloud phone system a hard sell

For years, the only connectivity option across Cape York and the Torres Strait was geostationary satellite — workable for email, painful for anything that needed a live, steady connection. Cloud cover could drop the link entirely, and the latency made a phone call feel like a two-way radio. A hosted PBX simply wasn’t a fair thing to recommend to a business running on that connection.

For years, the only connectivity option across Cape York and the Torres Strait was geostationary satellite — workable for email, painful for anything that needed a live, steady connection. Cloud cover could drop the link entirely, and the latency made a phone call feel like a two-way radio. A hosted PBX simply wasn’t a fair thing to recommend to a business running on that connection.

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What’s changed
What’s changed

Low-orbit satellite fixed the two problems that mattered most

Low-orbit satellite fixed the two problems that mattered most

Low-orbit satellite fixed the two problems that mattered most

Starlink’s satellites sit far closer to earth than the old geostationary network, which cuts the latency that made VoIP calls choppy and drops far less in bad weather. Communities across Cape York have already leaned on this in the worst conditions — during Cyclone Jasper, when the fibre link into one Cape York community was cut, satellite internet was the connection that kept working. That’s the kind of reliability a business phone system can actually be built on.

Starlink’s satellites sit far closer to earth than the old geostationary network, which cuts the latency that made VoIP calls choppy and drops far less in bad weather. Communities across Cape York have already leaned on this in the worst conditions — during Cyclone Jasper, when the fibre link into one Cape York community was cut, satellite internet was the connection that kept working. That’s the kind of reliability a business phone system can actually be built on.

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A phone system that’s ready for it,

A phone system that’s ready for it,

A phone system that’s ready for it,

plus a team that already understands the region.

plus a team that already understands the region.

plus a team that already understands the region.

Pair a Starlink connection with a ReefTel hosted PBX and you get a business number that behaves like it’s in Cairns, wherever your office actually is — call queues, softphone apps, and multi-site setups that work the same in Bamaga or Thursday Island as they do on the Esplanade. If a site loses power or connection during a storm, calls can be set to divert automatically to a mobile or another location, so the phone doesn’t just stop working when the weather turns.


  • Hosted PBX built to work properly over Starlink — no dependency on old high-latency satellite

  • Multi-site setup for organisations spanning Cairns and a Cape York or Torres Strait location

  • Automatic divert to mobile or another site if a location loses power or connectivity

  • Softphone app so calls follow staff, not a desk phone tied to one office

  • Keep your existing number, or set up new lines for a new site

  • No lock-in — sensible if you’re testing a new location before committing long-term

BASED IN CAIRNS

Cyclone season is normal here

ReefTel is based in Cairns — already the logistics and support base for the whole Cape and the Strait — so a call for help doesn’t mean waiting on an interstate provider who’s never dealt with a wet-season outage. We already think about cyclone season as a normal part of doing business up here, not an edge case.

common questions

common questions

Questions about phones in the Cape and the Strait?

Questions about phones in the Cape and the Strait?

Questions about phones in the Cape and the Strait?

Does a cloud phone system actually work over Starlink?

Yes — Starlink's low latency is a different proposition to the old satellite services, and voice calls that used to lag or drop now run cleanly.

We don't have a fixed-line or NBN option at our site — can we still get a proper business phone system?
What happens if we lose power or connection during a storm?
Can this work across more than one remote site?