Tag: United States

Ookla Research™ Articles
| December 20, 2023

U.S. - The Rise of 5G FWA & The Battle for Fixed Broadband Customers

Global Speeds

Fixed-wireless access (FWA) has emerged as a key 5G use case. Cellular providers in many markets are using FWA to easily enter and compete in fixed broadband markets, while fixed ISPs with access to 5G spectrum are utilizing it as a complementary access technology, allowing them to target locations where fiber access networks are not present. FWA can also be a solution to help bridge the digital divide in more remote locations where it’s uneconomical to lay fiber to connect premises.

The U.S. is at the forefront of fixed wireless access (FWA) development, with many of its major wireless carriers, including T-Mobile, Verizon, AT&T and UScellular targeting expansion. T-Mobile has built up a lead in terms of 5G fixed-wireless market share, with Verizon following closely, and AT&T recently launching a new FWA service – AT&T Internet Air. We examined Ookla Speedtest data to understand how FWA performance is evolving in the U.S., and how it is impacting churn in the market.

Key takeaways

  • T-Mobile & Verizon 5G FWA performance holding up well nationally. Despite strong customer growth, both T-Mobile and Verizon have maintained performance levels over the past year according to Speedtest data. Both ISPs recorded similar median download speeds in Q3 2023, although T-Mobile maintains an edge on median upload performance. Despite this, there are significant differences in performance at a State-level, and for urban versus rural locations.
  • Cable & DSL providers bear the brunt of user churn. The FWA value proposition is clearly resonating most with existing cable and DSL customers, which make up the vast bulk of churners to both T-Mobile’s and Verizon’s FWA services. It’s not one-way traffic however, with T-Mobile’s larger user base in particular showing some attrition to cable providers. In rural locations where options are more limited, FWA services are increasingly going head to head, with over 10% of users joining Verizon’s FWA service coming from T-Mobile.
  • Clear signs that download performance could be a key contributor to churn in the market. Our analysis of the customers of major ISPs in the US that have churned to T-Mobile’s FWA service shows that their median download performance before churning was below the median performance of all customers of these ISPs, indicating a performance short-fall that is likely contributing towards churn.
  • Further C-band spectrum will serve to strengthen FWA’s case. The release and deployment of additional C-band spectrum for all three national cellular carriers, and AT&T’s new FWA service will drive further performance gains, and further competitive pressure in 2024.

T-Mobile and Verizon FWA scaling strongly and national performance holding up well

Launched during the COVID-19 pandemic, FWA services from T-Mobile and Verizon have seen strong growth over the past three years. Aided by disruptive pricing strategies, no annual contracts, and ease of installation (self-install), net additions remain strong for both ISPs. T-Mobile’s current FWA plan retails for $50/month, but that falls to $30/month for customers subscribing to its Magenta MAX mobile plan. Verizon prices at a slight premium to T-Mobile, with its FWA service currently retailing for $60/month, but falling to $35/month with select 5G mobile plans. On the back of their success we’ve also recently seen AT&T update its FWA strategy, launching AT&T Internet Air in August 2023, with a similar pricing strategy.

Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) Customers – T-Mobile & Verizon
Company Reporting | Q3 2020 – Q3 2023

Utilizing the same 5G spectrum that its mobile customer base accesses, both T-Mobile and Verizon have been at pains to point out how they manage the on-boarding of new FWA customers, in order to limit any negative impact on performance for both cellular and FWA customers. The release and rollout of additional C-band spectrum for all three operators will provide extra headroom and the potential for improved 5G FWA performance, while T-Mobile has begun testing 5G Standalone mmWave, and has indicated that this could be utilized for 5G FWA in the future. 

Performance on T-Mobile’s and Verizon’s 5G FWA services has held up well to date, although it lags behind median download performance of the major cable and fiber ISPs. The median download speed across the US for all fixed providers combined in Q3 2023 was 207.42 Mbps. T-Mobile has recorded consistent median download speed over the past four quarters, reaching 122.48 Mbps in Q3 2023 based on Speedtest data, but saw its median upload performance erode slightly, down from 19.76 Mbps in Q4 2022, to 17.09 Mbps in Q3 2023. Verizon on the other hand improved its median download performance when compared to Q4 2022, reaching a similar level to T-Mobile, of 121.23 Mbps in Q3 2023. However, its upload performance remained lower than T-Mobile’s, at 11.53 Mbps.

U.S. 5G Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) Performance
Speedtest® Data – Custom Analysis | Q4 2022 – Q3 2023

Churn data shows Cable & DSL providers losing out to FWA

In order to understand the impact of these 5G FWA services on the U.S. fixed broadband market, we examined Speedtest data to identify users that had churned since Q2 2022 – when these services started to scale and really impact the rest of the market.

Our data shows that the bulk of churn to both T-Mobile’s and Verizon’s 5G FWA services in that time was from cable and DSL providers. Furthermore, it doesn’t skew towards rural locations, with both T-Mobile and Verizon seeing approximately 80% of their gross additions in urban locations. The aggressive pricing strategies of FWA providers have driven prices down across the market, with cable providers for example offering slimmed down broadband and content packages at competitive prices, while AT&T Fiber now prices its entry fiber package of 300 Mbps at $55/month.

Fixed Wireless Access New Recruits – Distribution of 5G FWA Gross Additions by ISP
Speedtest® Data – Custom Analysis | Q2 2022 – Q3 2023

While cable operators bear the brunt of churn to 5G FWA services at present, their strategic response in competing on price is seeing some FWA subscribers move back to cable – a trend which the availability of FWA services with no annual contracts makes easier. Speedtest data shows that Cox for example, saw 7.3% of gross additions come from previous users of T-Mobile’s FWA service, while for Spectrum and XFINITY, former T-Mobile FWA users accounted for 6.3% and 6.0%, respectively. 

In rural locations where FWA performance lags that of urban locations, and where cable providers have less overlap with FWA service, there is a more even spread of churn to FWA, between cable and DSL providers. In addition, we see stronger churn to rival FWA services, with Verizon’s FWA service attracting 11.1% of its gross additions from T-Mobile, and T-Mobile recording 2.7% of its gross additions from Verizon’s FWA users.

Users that churn experience improved network performance

With the larger FWA customer base, we ran an analysis of Speedtest data of users churning to and from T-Mobile’s 5G FWA service over the period Q2 2022 – Q3 3023, to understand if there were clear drivers for this churn. We found that the median download speed for the subset of users churning to T-Mobile, was consistently below the median of all users, for each ISP, highlighting the importance of ISPs ensuring consistent performance across their user base.

Targeting Churn – Performance Prior to Churning to T-Mobile's 5G FWA Service
Speedtest® Data – Custom Analysis | Q2 2022 – Q3 2023

Users moving to T-Mobile’s 5G FWA service, and those churning away from it, experienced an increase in median download performance. Those users joining T-Mobile’s FWA service over the period Q2 2022 – Q3 2023, recorded an increase in their median download speed of 13.04 Mbps. On the other hand, those users churning away from T-Mobile saw their median download performance increase by 85.53 Mbps. Users joining Spectrum, Optimum, Cox and XFINITY from T-Mobile’s 5G FWA service experienced median download speeds in excess of 100 Mbps faster, highlighting the significant performance advantages that cable and fiber providers maintain over FWA.

Targeting Churn – Performance for Customers Churning Away From T-Mobile’s 5G FWA Service
Speedtest® Data – Custom Analysis | Q2 2022 – Q3 2023

State and urban/rural analysis reveal 5G FWA performance gaps

While median performance has remained relatively stable for both operators over the past year, regional performance, and between urban and rural locations, varies significantly. The performance of 5G FWA services depends heavily on the spectrum bands available in each location, as well as the fact these FWA services do not rely on outdoor consumer premise equipment (CPE), with wireless signals having to navigate into the home. The deployment of additional C-band spectrum will help improve performance over time, however, users and ISPs who do not locate CPE externally, will have to continue to navigate the intricacies of available spectrum bands and CPE positioning within the home.

Rural locations predictably fared worse than urban locations for both T-Mobile and Verizon 5G FWA service, given differences in spectrum availability, and also distance from cell sites, although the difference was starker for Verizon’s FWA service, which recorded a median of 155.77 Mbps in urban locations during Q3 2023, but only 51.41 Mbps in rural locations. T-Mobile increased rural FWA performance, up from 82.20 Mbps in Q4 2022, to 91.96 Mbps in Q3 2023. Verizon on the other hand focussed more heavily on urban locations, with the 155.77 Mbps it achieved in Q3 2023 a sizeable increase on the 125.55 Mbps it recorded in Q4 2022.

Urban vs Rural 5G FWA performance
Speedtest® Data – Custom Analysis | Q3 2023

Setting a minimum threshold of 100 samples for Q3 2023, Speedtest data showed Verizon recorded a median 5G FWA download speed of 181.77 Mbps in Nebraska, followed by 160.56 Mbps in Colorado, and 150.24 Mbps in Kansas. At the other end of the scale, Verizon 5G FWA users in Mississippi recorded median download speeds of 31.54 Mbps, of 36.72 Mbps in Wyoming, and 46.92 Mbps in West Virginia. Upload performance followed a similar trend, with a high of 16.74 Mbps in Nebraska, and a low of 4.20 in Mississippi.

T-Mobile’s 5G FWA service saw median download performance hit a high of 189.58 Mbps in Hawaii during Q3 2023, and like Verizon was strong in Nebraska, with 150.53 Mbps, while Oregon followed with 145.11 Mbps. States with lower median download speeds for T-Mobile included Vermont with 63.31 Mbps, South Dakota with 65.38 Mbps, and like T-Mobile, West Virginia with 67.23 Mbps. Median upload performance for T-Mobile’s 5G FWA service also varied significantly, reaching 41.62 Mbps in Hawaii, but falling to 9.74 Mbps in North Dakota.

We’ll continue to monitor the progress of FWA in the U.S., and the competitive response from cable, DSL, fiber and even satellite providers, as the battle for users intensifies. To find out more about Speedtest Intelligence data and insights, please contact us here.

Ookla retains ownership of this article including all of the intellectual property rights, data, content graphs and analysis. This article may not be quoted, reproduced, distributed or published for any commercial purpose without prior consent. Members of the press and others using the findings in this article for non-commercial purposes are welcome to publicly share and link to report information with attribution to Ookla.

Global Speeds
5G

About the Author

Mark Giles

Ookla Research™ Articles
| December 19, 2023

The State of Worldwide Connectivity in 2023

Global Speeds

To gain insight into the current performance of networks, we analyzed Speedtest® data in Q3 2023. Our analysis compares changes in 5G performance to the previous year, identifies the top 10 countries with the best performance, and discusses customer satisfaction with 5G. We also ranked countries based on the performance of their fixed networks and investigated the connectivity gap across the world.

5G | Fixed | Connectivity for All

Key takeaways 

  • Global 5G download speed improved. The median global 5G download speed experienced a substantial 20% increase in Q3 2023, reaching 203.04 Mbps, compared to 168.27 Mbps in Q3 2022. This improvement aligns with a significant rise in global 5G subscriptions, indicating positive progress in user adoption of 5G and the performance of 5G networks. 
  • Top 5G performers have shifted. The top 10 countries for 5G performance witnessed notable changes, with the United Arab Emirates claiming the top spot, surpassing South Korea. Malaysia, India, and the Dominican Republic also made significant strides, showcasing a dynamic shift in the global 5G landscape.
  • Speedtest user ratings indicate room for 5G improvement. Despite advancements in 5G technology, there has been a decline in the Net Promoter Score (NPS) among 5G users. Factors contributing to this dissatisfaction could include unmet expectations and discrepancies between actual 5G speeds and advertised speeds.
  • Fixed Networks Advancements. On a global scale, fixed networks demonstrated significant performance improvement, with a 19% increase in median download speed (83.95 Mbps) and a 28% increase in upload speed (38.32 Mbps) in Q3 2023 compared to the previous year. This highlights the ongoing transition to more advanced broadband technologies, particularly Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH).
  • The imperative of closing the connectivity gaps. Despite improvements in global connectivity, there are still areas that fall outside of network coverage. Speedtest® data highlights disparities in internet performance between fixed and mobile networks across different regions, emphasizing the importance of addressing connectivity challenges worldwide.

5G Networks

Global 5G download speed improvements

Illustration of 5G Median Performance Worldwide

The median global 5G download speed has experienced a noteworthy surge, registering a 20% increase and reaching 203.04 Mbps in Q3 2023, compared to 168.27 Mbps in Q3 2022, according to Speedtest Intelligence® data. This improvement coincides with a substantial rise in global 5G connections, reaching 1.4 billion according to GSMA Intelligence, representing a 65% year-on-year increase from 872 million a year ago. 

In terms of upload speed and latency, only a very modest improvement of 1% occurred. Median 5G upload speeds reached 18.93 Mbps in Q3 2023, compared to 18.71 Mbps in the same period last year; multi-server latency, a critical metric for network responsiveness, improved from 45 ms in Q3 2022 to 44 ms in Q3 2023. 

Speedtest users experiencing the top 10% of 5G download speeds globally have seen a 9% increase, rising from 525.54 Mbps in Q3 2022 to 573.12 Mbps in Q3 2023. However, speeds have not yet reached Gigabit levels, primarly because of network economics. 5G was originally designed to deliver peak data rates of up to 20 Gbps based on IMT-2020 requirements, but we are still a ways off before gigabit speeds become the new normal. For instance, symmetrical download, upload speeds, and ultra-low latency haven’t been realized, partially because the vast majority of 5G networks are not ‘true 5G’ as they have been deployed in Non-Standalone (NSA) mode, meaning they rely on a 4G LTE network core. According to GSA, over 40 operators have launched 5G standalone (SA) in public networks, but the rollout is not yet complete. Nevertheless, the industry is actively exploring the prospect of 5G Advanced, which promises symmetrical upload and download speeds and ultra-low latency, signaling a proactive stance ahead of the eventual transition to 6G.

Malaysia joined South Korea and the U.A.E at 5G speeds podium

Chart of Fastest Countries for Median 5G Download Speed

During Q3 2023, the United Arab Emirates and South Korea stood out as leaders in 5G performance, boasting the fastest median 5G download speeds globally at 592.01 Mbps and 507.59 Mbps, respectively. Our top 10 list also includes Malaysia, Qatar, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Kuwait, Macau, Singapore, and India. The shift in the top 10 rankings reveals dynamic changes, with Malaysia, the Dominican Republic, and India making significant strides, while Bulgaria, Saudi Arabia, New Zealand, and Bahrain dropped out of the rankings.

The U.A.E showcased a 14% increase in its median 5G download speed, reaching 592.01 Mbps in Q3 2023, up from 511.68 Mbps in Q3 2022, allowing the U.A.E to take the top spot from South Korea. Key factors contributing to the U.A.E.’s 5G leadership include fierce market competition driven by Etisalat and du, resulting in extensive 5G coverage and widespread access to 5G services. Additionally, the allocation of a 100 MHz of contiguous spectrum, as discussed in our 5G spectrum article, has played a pivotal role in achieving faster speeds, lower latency, and improved spectral efficiency.

The regional shift in 5G performance leadership is noteworthy. In 2022, half of the top 10 countries were from the Middle East, while in 2023, the same proportion hailed from the Asia Pacific region. Our analysis suggests that early adopters in the Asia Pacific region have outperformed major European markets in 5G performance, due to factors such as early spectrum availability and supportive government policies.

Malaysia’s remarkable achievement in reaching the third spot globally for 5G download speed, with a reported speed of 485.24 Mbps in Q3 2023, is particularly noteworthy. Despite launching its nationwide 5G network less than two years ago, Malaysia’s unconventional deployment strategy has proven effective. India has also made a significant leap, with its median 5G download speed of 312.26 Mbps allowing India to reach the top 10 worldwide. The country’s climb of 72 places on the Speedtest Global Index™ between September 2022 and August 2023 is primarily credited to the launch of 5G. Following a 5G spectrum auction in India, operators have successfully addressed network congestion issues by offloading 4G traffic onto 5G networks.

In Brazil, 5G download speed increased 1.4 times, jumping from 312.09 Mbps in Q3 2022 to 443.93 Mbps in Q3 2023. Before Brazil’s 5G spectrum auction, operators had offered 5G using DSS since July 2020. While DSS can provide broad 5G coverage, its speeds are often similar to those on 4G LTE networks. In November of 2021, however, Brazil’s multi-band 5G spectrum auction closed, which not only generated BRL47.2 billion ($8.5 billion) in total commitments, but it also allowed operators to deliver much faster speeds on dedicated 5G spectrum compared to DSS. National operators – Telefonica Brasil (Vivo), Claro Brazil, and TIM Brazil – ended up with 40 MHz or 50 MHz in the 2.3 GHz spectrum band and 100 MHz each in the 3.5 GHz band. The subsequent simultaneous activation of 5G networks in July 2022 marked a transformative moment with the continuous expansion of 5G services to 623 municipalities by December 2023. An upcoming spectrum auction expects to improve Brazil’s 5G standing even further.

The Dominican Republic’s entry into the top 10 fastest 5G countries was marked by its official launch of 5G services in December 2021, making it the first Caribbean nation and the third in Latin America to adopt a 5G network.

Disparity Between 5G Performance and Consumer Perception

The Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a tool that gauges customer loyalty and satisfaction. At the end of Speetest, users may be asked to answer “How likely is it that you would recommend [provider] to a friend or colleague?” on a scale from 0-10. Net Promoter Scores are applied to both users and providers. Users are categorized into Detractors (score 0-6), Passives (score 7-8), and Promoters (score 9-10). NPS is the percent of Promoters minus the percent of Detractors and is displayed in the range from -100 to 100. Providers are ranked in descending order of NPS. NPS categorizes users into Detractors (those that score 0-6), Passives (scores between 7 and 8), and Promoters (scores of 9-10). NPS represents the percentage of Promoters minus the percent of Detractors displayed in the range from -100 to 100. 

In our article discussing whether 5G was meeting customer expectations, we found that 5G users typically rate their network operator with NPS scores universally higher than those for 4G LTE users. In Q3 2023, that trend continued, as 5G  users that were on 5G network when answering the NPS question still scored higher than those on 4G across all markets analyzed. It isn’t surprising given that at a global level, 5G had a 637% better median download speed than 4G and a 130% better median upload speed. 

Chart of NPS Score, 5G Compared to 4G

While 5G NPS still outpaces scores on 4G, our data shows that 5G NPS has been decreasing annually. This could point to the fact that excitement about 5G as a new technology is waning as users become used to faster speeds, or as customers await new use cases that can take advantage of the faster speeds that 5G can provide. After all, we are still waiting for that killer app for 5G, the way the video and streaming were for 4G. 

While it is difficult to fully explain the reasons behind the 5G NPS decrease without further research, we can clearly see that network performance isn’t the only factor at play influencing NPS declines. Others can include customer care, pricing, and other services. For example, in South Korea, one of the first countries to launch 5G with one of the world’s fastest speeds, consumers scored 5G networks -41.47 in Q3 2023 compared to -20.51 in Q3 2022. 

In March 2021, South Korean consumers launched a class action suit against operators because they felt they were being misled by the promises of 5G in the country. Recently, South Korea’s antitrust regulator fined three 5G operators a total of 33.6 billion won ($25.06 million) for making exaggerated claims about the level of performance their networks could achieve. South Korean operators claimed consumers could experience theoretical 5G speeds, which are not practically achievable in a “real world” environment, as factors such as spectrum usage, network densification, user location, and device capability significantly affect actual performance. Our data shows that the top 10% of 5G users in South Korea experienced speeds of 1.004 Gbps in Q3 2023, which, although impressive, are far lower than the advertised 20 Gbps speeds. 

Chart of 5G NPS Score Change Year on Year

Fixed Networks

Fiber driving fixed performance gains 

Illustration of Fixed Median Performance Worldwide

On a global scale, fixed networks have demonstrated significant advancements, achieving a median download speed of 83.95 Mbps and an upload speed of 38.32 Mbps in Q3 2023, per Speedtest Intelligence data. This signifies a substantial 19% improvement in download speed and an impressive 28% enhancement in upload speed compared to those in 2022. This also indicates that more fixed connections have migrated to fiber networks.

According to the World Broadband Association (WBBA) report titled “Next Generation Broadband Roadmap 2023 to 2030” Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) is identified as the natural progression from copper-based xDSL broadband networks. The shift towards FTTH varies across different countries and regions, but the industry is committed to embracing more advanced and efficient broadband technologies. 

Oftentimes, despite improvement in underlying broadband technology, Wi-Fi is the bottleneck that reduces customer experience. Our research has shown that Wi-Fi performance can lag behind ethernet in markets where advanced cable and fiber connections are replacing legacy broadband technology (such as DSL or coax cable). Wi-Fi speeds typically range from 30-40% of ethernet, indicating a need to accelerate the adoption of more advanced Wi-Fi technologies and optimize the home network environment.

The UAE, Singapore, and Hong Kong are in the lead for fixed

Chart of Fastest Countries for Fixed Broadband Download Speed

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Singapore led the way in fixed network performance.

The UAE achieved a median download speed of 247.63 Mbps in Q3 2023, representing a notable 1.83 times increase compared to the previous year. Most customers in the UAE have access to fiber networks, and additional measures have been implemented by operators in the region to enhance internet speeds, such as increasing the minimum download speed from 250 Mbps to 500 Mbps and offering price discounts to incentivize users to upgrade to higher-tier plans. 

Singapore also leads on the 2023 Fiber Development Index (FDI), with maximum scores in seven of the nine metrics. Singapore, along with Qatar and South Korea, has achieved 100% FTHH coverage. One of the reasons for this success, besides having a smaller area, is that Singapore’s regulator mandates building owners and real estate developers to provide adequate space, facilities, and accessibility for network operators to pre-install fiber networks.

Hong Kong also demonstrated significant progress, with a 37% increase in median download speed and a 40% increase in upload speed. To track broadband adoption, the Office of the Communications Authority (OFCA) in Hong Kong monitors broadband adoption by advertised speed and technology mix; as of August 2023, 66% of residential clients already subscribed to the Internet with a download speed equal to or greater than 1 Gbps.

Chile has seen a 14% improvement in median download speed and a 29% improvement in upload speed on the back of a greater fiber adoption. Chile has been the top-performing fixed broadband market across Latin America, consistently outperforming other regional markets but over the last three years, it has also closed the performance gap with other leading markets globally. Chile’s strong fixed broadband performance — an anomaly in the region — is primarily due to strong competition among Chilean ISPs. Chile has seven ISPs with over 5% market share, all heavily focused on migrating customers to fiber. 

Thailand is a newcomer to the ranking as FTTH continues to grow strongly. FTTH constitutes an impressive 95% of fixed broadband users in Thailand, equivalent to around 58.96% of household penetration. Operators have been actively rolling out fiber in adherence to the Digital Thailand National Policy.

In the United States, there has been a 26% improvement in median download speed and a 7% improvement in upload speed. In this very competitive market, with a range of access technologies vying for customers, a combination of migration to fiber, 5G fixed-wireless access (FWA), and faster cable connections is helping drive higher performance levels. In line with the demand for faster network performance in the market, the FCC recently announced that it is seeking input on a planned increase to its definition of broadband/high-speed internet to 100 Mbps download and 20 Mbps upload, up from the current 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload standard.

As discussed in our recent article, several European countries are making substantial progress in offering high-speed broadband. Across Europe, Denmark had the fastest median download speed for fixed broadband (196.43 Mbps), followed by Spain (176.08 Mbps) and France (170.51 Mbps). Denmark experienced a 25% improvement in median download speed and a 16% improvement in upload speed. Spain also showed significant improvement, with a 32% increase in median download speed and a 29% increase in upload speed. France exhibited even stronger progress, with a 53% increase in median download speed and a 41% increase in upload speed. The speed gains we’ve seen in Spain and France are correlated with an increase in fiber adoption; for example, Spain boasts nearly 90% fiber optic coverage, thanks to private initiatives and government support, while France expects a full-fiber rollout by 2025.

Connectivity for All

The imperative of closing the connectivity gap

Massive investments are being made to bridge the connectivity gap as recognition of connectivity as a fundamental human right is growing. According to a WBBA Whitepaper, a high level of broadband penetration is critical to the country’s socioeconomic development. However, it’s not only about being connected to the network per se; the quality of that broadband connection is equally crucial. Unlike other utility services like gas and electricity, where quality is generally stable, with broadband, the quality of the network experience is crucial to ensure users can benefit fully from multiple applications.

To assess the digital divide, we mapped mobile and fixed internet performance using data from the Open Data Initiative, which Ookla provides as part of Ookla for Good. 

Map of Average Mobile Download Speed of Over 100 Mbps
Map of Average Fixed Download Speed of Over 100 Mbps

Determining where a digital divide exists is a complex issue that involves identifying where network infrastructure is located, where people need connectivity, and how affordable it is. Although it can be challenging to dig into a specific location, it is evident that there are varying levels of Internet performance worldwide. A quick glance at our data shows that fixed broadband customers are more likely to experience faster networks (measured as an average download speed of 100 Mbps and above) than mobile across the Americas and Europe. The opposite is true for mobile networks across Africa and APAC, where mobile networks are often the primary means of connectivity. Compared to urban areas, rural communities are often ill-equipped for broadband access. Due to a lack of bandwidth (and therefore slower speeds), people in these areas need help doing many things on the internet, such as streaming videos. The US regulator FCC defines broadband in the United States as access to  25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload speeds. Areas without those speeds are classified as broadband “digital deserts,” even if those areas have internet access. Although broadband definitions can vary considerably from country to country, we can see in the next section that many areas fall outside any standards of connectivity globally.

Despite the world becoming increasingly connected, many rural and remote areas still struggle to access the internet. For example, large swathes of South America and Africa fall outside terrestrial network coverage. As discussed in our recent article, cellular networks are critical to connecting individuals and businesses as internet access in Africa is predominantly mobile. Before we can start discussing 5G, connecting communities with the internet in general is a priority. Affordable 4G smartphones and targeted financing for under-served demographics are key for bridging the digital divide and reducing poverty, as a World Bank study found that 4G coverage can help cut poverty by up to 4.3%. 

Map of Average Mobile Download Speed of Less than 5 Mbps
Map of Average Fixed Download Speed of Less than 5 Mbps

5G technology can potentially replace fixed internet access in situations where the cost of fiber deployments is high and rolling out traditional fixed broadband networks isn’t commercially viable. However, in countries like Indonesia, satellite technology may be a more effective solution for connecting remote areas. While 5G Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) and satellite technology can complement each other, the adoption of satellite technology is currently limited by factors such as coverage, device affordability, and service cost. As revealed in our recent article, Starlink outperforms GEO satellites and is a suitable replacement for fixed networks in rural areas. While it may not match the leading cable or fiber providers in terms of median speeds or multi-server latency, satellite internet provides a viable alternative in places where cable and fiber access networks are unavailable. This is mainly due to a more consistent distribution of download performance across Speedtest samples, unlike FWA and DSL-based services, where performance is impacted by the distance from the cell site or exchange/DSLAM.

Fixed and mobile network operators across the globe widely use Speedtest data to enhance Internet quality, improve accessibility, and inform network expansion. The United States Federal Communications Commission and the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission rely on Speedtest data to ensure accountability of telecommunications entities and allocate funds for rural and urban connectivity development. Ookla also licenses data to NGOs and educational institutions to help bridge the digital divide between areas with and without modern Internet access. Our mapping data is used to track results and determine whether broadband infrastructure can handle growth as more people connect devices and technologies demand more bandwidth. We are also actively involved in discussing best practices for ensuring digital transformation and connectivity for all in the APAC region, Central Asia, and Europe. If you are interested in working with us, please reach out. 

Keep track of how well your country is performing on Ookla’s Speedtest Global Index™ and get advice on how to plan and optimize your network.

Ookla retains ownership of this article including all of the intellectual property rights, data, content graphs and analysis. This article may not be quoted, reproduced, distributed or published for any commercial purpose without prior consent. Members of the press and others using the findings in this article for non-commercial purposes are welcome to publicly share and link to report information with attribution to Ookla.

Global Speeds
5G
Ookla for Good
Tech Insights
Hong Kong

About the Author

Sylwia Kechiche

Ookla Research™ Articles
| May 8, 2025

Boost Mobile's Network Performance is on the Uptick, but Lags its Peers

5G SA

The operator’s download and upload speeds increased in the latter part of 2024, which coincides with Boost Mobile’s efforts to migrate customers onto its 5G network and off its roaming partners’ networks.

Key Takeaways

  • According to Speedtest data, Boost Mobile users nationwide saw their 5G median download speeds increased from 146.53 Mbps in September 2024 to 167.39 Mbps in April 2025. 
  • Boost Speedtest users also experienced a similar phenomenon in their median upload speeds. Those speeds increased from 9.87 Mbps in September 2024 to 11.47 Mbps in April 2025. 
  • Despite its improvements in median download and upload speeds in the latter part of 2024, Boost’s overall 5G upload and download speeds still lag in performance compared  to all other US 5G providers combined. 

Boost Mobile, the scrappy fourth 5G nationwide U.S. wireless network provider, has come a long way from its origin as a prepaid mobile brand launched by Sprint back in 2001. The wireless operator, which today is owned by Dish Network (and Dish’s parent company EchoStar), started building a nationwide greenfield 5G standalone (SA) network in 2022 using open radio access network (O-RAN) technology.  

By mid-2023 Boost Mobile had covered more than 70% of the US population with its network. Today it claims to cover 80% of the U.S. population with its 5G SA network. It also has roaming deals with T-Mobile and AT&T, which extends its footprint beyond its existing coverage area. 

Dish claims that its greenfield 5G SA network is more efficient than its competitors, however, Speedtest data indicates that while its network performance improved in the latter part of 2024, it still falls below the combined network upload and download speeds of the other 5G providers in the U.S.

Boost’s Big Ambitions

Boost has big aspirations to be a major wireless competitor in the U.S. market. CTO Eben Albertyn recently told attendees at the Competitive Carriers Association conference in Denver in April that the company expects to outperform AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon in network superiority in several cities this year. 

Boost Mobile ended 2024 with 6.995 million wireless customers, which is down from the 9 million customers Boost had in 2020 when it was sold to Dish Network for $1.4 billion as a condition of T-Mobile’s acquisition of Sprint.  

After several quarters of losing customers, the company experienced a bit of a turnaround in Q4 2024 when it added 90,000 net subscribers. This is an improvement over Q4 2023 when it lost 123,000 customers and over Q3 2024 when it lost 297,000 customers. The company will be reporting its Q1 2025 earnings May 9, 2025. 

Median Download and Upload Speeds Are on the Rise

Analysis of Ookla Speedtest data from September 2024 to April 2025 demonstrates that Boost Mobile Speedtest 5G users clocked a median download speed of 146.53 Mbps in September 2024 before ticking up to 167.39 Mbps in April 2025. However, Boost’s median download speeds still falls significantly short when compared to all other 5G providers in the market which have a combined median 5G download speed of 237.61 Mbps in April 2025.  

At the same time, Boost Mobile’s median upload speeds showed a similar pattern. Boost Speedtest users saw their median upload speeds of 9.87 Mbps in September 2024 increase to 11.47 Mbps in April 2025, which is still lower than the median upload speeds of all other 5G providers combined at 12.50 Mbps as of April 2025. 

These increases and decreases in median upload and download speeds coincide with the Boost’s migration of its customers onto its 5G network and off its partners’ roaming networks (more on this below). 

A Comparison of Boost Mobile's 5G Median Upload, Download and Latency Speeds
September 2024 through April 2025
A comparison of Boost Mobile's 5G Median Upload, Download and Latency Speeds from September 2024 until April 2025

Boost Lags in Latency

Latency is a key metric for wireless operators because it measures the responsiveness or reaction time of a connection – in other words, how quickly your device responds to a request. In this metric, Speedtest data measures multi-server latency, which calculates latency to multiple connections and then takes an average. 

Boost logged a latency rate of 56 ms in September 2024, which declined slightly to 54 ms in December 2024 and January 2025 but rose again to 56 ms in April 2024. However, this latency rate is quite a bit higher than 48 ms in latency measured by the other wireless providers combined in April 2025. 

Web Page Load Times Improve


Web page load times are an important network performance measurement because they indicate how quickly popular web pages load for consumers. Ookla Speedtest data from April 2025 shows Boost with a web page load time of 1.80 seconds.This is a slight decrease from September 2024 when Boost users logged web page load times of 1.90 seconds. All other 5G providers combined had a median web page load time of 1.40 seconds in April 2025.

A Comparison of 5G Web Load Times
September 2024 through April 2025
A comparison of Boost Mobile's 5G Web Load Times from September 2024 until April 2025

Boost’s Origin Story Likely Impacting Network Performance

Boost’s network performance is most likely influenced by the company’s origin as a prepaid brand on Sprint’s network.

Although Dish initially referred to its wireless brand as Dish Wireless, the company rebooted its branding in July 2024 and now uses the Boost Mobile brand exclusively.

Those original Boost Mobile prepaid customers remained on T-Mobile’s network while Dish built its greenfield cloud-native 5G SA network. In July 2021 Dish signed a roaming deal with AT&T to give it access to AT&T’s network and provide coverage for Boost Mobile customers (and also its other MVNO customers that it acquired when it purchased Ting Mobile and Republic Wireless).  

At the time, Boost said that its roaming deal with AT&T would be particularly advantageous in rural areas and would allow it to provide wireless services to customers while it continued with its network build.

Because Boost started as a prepaid brand and then acquired more prepaid MVNO brands it’s likely that much of its installed prepaid subscriber base uses mid-tier or low-tier devices that may not be taking full advantage of Boost’s 5G network. 

By June 2023 Boost had met its first coverage requirement (as determined by the FCC) by covering 70% of the U.S. population with its 5G network. At the end of 2024 Boost said that its network now reaches 80% of the U.S. population with 5G. The FCC last September granted Dish an extension to meet its final buildout requirement by December 14, 2026.

Boost today claims to cover 80% of the population of the U.S. with its 5G SA network. However, many of Boost’s customers are still roaming on AT&T and T-Mobile’s networks due to those prior roaming relationships. During Echostar’s Q4 2024 earnings call with investors, executives from Boost Mobile said that only one million of its nearly 7 million  wireless customers are actually using Boost’s 5G network. 

Boost also said that it is loading more than 75% of compatible devices on its SA network in accelerated markets. 

Spectrum and Handsets Are Key Factors in Boost’s Performance

Boost Mobile’s network performance is also impacted by the mix of spectrum for its 5G SA network. The company deployed its 5G network using a mix of mid-band and low-band spectrum.

Boost claims that it is the first operator of a 5G network to use simultaneous four-carrier downlink and two-carrier uplink aggregation to allow for speedier connections. In October 2023 Boost said that by working with Samsung and Qualcomm it had achieved simultaneous 2x uplink and 4x downlink carrier aggregation and attained peak uplink speeds of 200 Mbps with just 35 MHz of 5G spectrum. It also said it achieved peak downlink speeds of 1.3 Gbps using just 75 MHz of 5G spectrum across FDD bands n71, n70 and n66. 

While that four-carrier downlink and two-carrier uplink aggregation may be helping Boost improve its download and upload speeds it hasn’t been enough to make it speedier than the other nationwide providers. 

As Boost Mobile migrates customers onto its 5G network and off its roaming partners, it also will be moving those customers onto new handsets that are compatible with the new network and will likely improve the customer experience. 

Boost Mobile has been aggressive with its iPhone and Samsung Galaxy device promotions. In February it offered new customers an iPhone 16e for $199.99. In addition, it also offers significant discounts to existing customers on the latest iPhone and Samsung Galaxy devices when they upgrade to the company’s Infinite Access plan. 

This plan, which costs $65/month, includes 30GB of premium data and comes with a new iPhone. The plan also allows customers to upgrade to a new device every year, without having to trade in their old phone. 

Boost Needs Customers and Customer Experience

Boost has made great strides in building a greenfield 5G SA network in the U.S. from scratch  but now the operator needs to deliver on its promise of building a state-of-the-art network by showing the type of stellar performance that one might expect.

We’ll continue to monitor Boost’s network performance, particularly as it continues to grow its customer base and become less reliant upon its roaming partners. 

 To find out more about Speedtest Intelligence® data and insights, please contact us here.

Ookla retains ownership of this article including all of the intellectual property rights, data, content graphs and analysis. This article may not be quoted, reproduced, distributed or published for any commercial purpose without prior consent. Members of the press and others using the findings in this article for non-commercial purposes are welcome to publicly share and link to report information with attribution to Ookla.

5G SA
Boost Mobile

About the Author

Sue Marek

Ookla Research™ Articles
| February 16, 2025

5G in High Places: Indoor Coverage Across the World's Iconic Skyscrapers

UAE

Skyscrapers are not just architectural achievements; they also test the limits of telecommunications and connectivity systems. These structures highlight both the obstacles and innovations required for seamless connectivity in high-rise environments. This report, using data from Cell Analytics™, benchmarks the 5G indoor coverage experience in nine of the world’s most iconic buildings by analyzing the average Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) and Reference Signal Received Quality (RSRQ), providing critical insights into the signal strength and quality that subscribers experience within these architectural marvels.

Icons That Shape Skylines

Modern skyscrapers are more than just towering structures—they shape city skylines, serve as commercial and cultural hubs, and play a crucial role in defining a nation’s global presence. Their impact also goes beyond aesthetics. They contribute significantly to a city’s economy by attracting businesses, investors, and tourists. For example, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai has helped position the city as a global business and tourism hub, drawing millions of visitors each year. Similarly, the Empire State Building in New York remains a historic landmark and one of the most visited tourist attractions in the world.

Using Ookla® Cell Analytics™ data, we analyzed nine of the most iconic buildings in the world, recognized for their unique architectural designs, global influence, and economic and cultural significance.

Chart of select skyscrapers of the world by height and significance

Most skyscrapers provide strong signal strength but coverage gaps still exist

Drilling down into data at the individual building from the second half of 2024, we evaluated subscribers’ 5G indoor experience by measuring the average Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) and Reference Signal Received Quality (RSRQ). RSRP represents the network signal strength received by a mobile phone. An RSRP value that exceeds -90 dBm indicates superior coverage. If the signal strength is between -90 dBm and -100 dBm, then network coverage is considered good. Below this range, expect slower download speeds and potential network disconnections. RSRQ is a metric used to evaluate the quality of the reference signal received by a device. A value of -10 dB or higher indicates excellent network quality while a value between -10 dB and -15 dB is considered good. An RSRQ value lower than -15 dB is poor or indicates no signal at all.

chart of indoor 5G signal strength and quality in select skyscrapers of the world, indoor 5G lower 10%, Top 10%, and mean RSRP (dBm)
chart of indoor 5G signal strength and quality in select skyscrapers of the world, indoor 5G lower 10%, Top 10%, and mean RSRQ (dB)

Overall, the ​​5G indoor coverage across the nine skyscrapers reveals that most buildings provide superior 5G signal strength, as well as excellent network quality. However, some still face challenges in ensuring consistent connectivity. Shanghai Tower recorded the strongest 5G signal among all buildings, with a weighted average RSRP of -71.04 dBm of all samples detected inside the building. This suggests a well-optimized indoor network, likely supported by China’s extensive 5G infrastructure. As China is one of the major leaders in 5G deployment, major urban centers like Shanghai benefit from advanced indoor network solutions, such as small cells and distributed antenna systems (DAS), ensuring strong coverage even in high-rise environments.

Burj Khalifa in UAE, and the Empire State Building New York City, showed strong 5G coverage, with average RSRP values of -85.53 dBm and -83.19 dBm, respectively. Both buildings also reported very good signal quality, with an average RSRQ of -11.07 dB and -11.95 dB respectively. The Empire State Building, completed in 1931, has undergone modernization efforts to enhance its telecommunications infrastructure. Similarly, the Burj Khalifa benefits from Dubai’s extensive 5G rollout, with the UAE ranking among the top countries in 5G performance.

The Shard in London reported the weakest 5G coverage among the selected buildings, with an average RSRP of -96.69 dBm. The Shard’s glass-heavy design may contribute to this weaker performance, as glass can reflect and absorb mobile signals. The building also reported a much weaker signal strength in the lower 10% with RSRP value of -113 dBM, indicating that in certain areas of the building, users are experiencing poor 5G coverage and quality.

Taipei 101 and the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, showed good average 5G RSRP but experienced weaker signals in certain areas. The lower 10% RSRP values for both buildings were below -100 dBm (-105.00 dBm for Taipei 101 and -101.00 dBm for Petronas Twin Towers), suggesting that parts of these buildings may suffer from inconsistent coverage. Taipei 101 was designed to withstand earthquakes and typhoons, incorporating thick concrete and reinforced steel, which can interfere with mobile signals. While the Petronas Twin Towers currently lack a dedicated indoor 5G coverage solution.

One World Trade Center in New York City and Autograph Tower in Jakarta had similar 5G characteristics, with very good average RSRP around -85 dBm or better, but the reported lower 10% values suggest potential dead zones or weaker coverage in some areas.

From lobby to observation deck

Using Cell Analytics data, we compared the 5G the average RSRP and RSRQ at two different height levels in each skyscraper: Bottom 10% of the building height, which represents coverage on the lower floors, based on samples collected closest to the ground floor, and Top 10% of the building height, which represents the highest levels, based on samples collected at the floors nearest to the top of the building.

chart of 5G signal strength and quality in select skyscrapers of the world, at bottom 10% and Top 10% of building height RSRP (dBm)
chart of 5G signal strength and quality in select skyscrapers of the world, at bottom 10% and Top 10% of building height RSRQ (dB)

Several skyscrapers showed minimal differences in 5G signal strength and quality between the lowest and highest floors. Burj Khalifa, One World Trade Center, Taipei 101, and the Empire State Building all had RSRP variations of 3 dBm or less between measurements taken at the bottom and top levels. The Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world at 828 meters, reported a slight improvement from -77.09 dBm at the lower floors to -76.30 dBm at the top.

Burj Khalifa, Taipei 101, and the Empire State Building also reported consistent 5G RSRQ between their lower and top floors, indicating stable 5G network quality. All four buildings have high-altitude observation decks, where strong 5G coverage is essential for tourists, businesses, and building operations.

In contrast, some skyscrapers exhibited noticeably larger differences between the lower and top floors RSRP and RSRQ, with weaker 5G signals at their higher levels. Petronas Twin Towers, Lotte World Tower, and Autograph Tower all showed a significant decline in signal strength as elevation increased. Petronas Twin Towers recorded a relatively strong -80.44 dBm at nearer to ground levels, but this dropped to -92.67 dBm at the top. This is mainly due to the lack of a dedicated indoor 5G coverage solution, with most 5G signals coming from outdoor cell towers. Similarly, the RSRP at Lotte World Tower fell from -71.14 dBm at the lower floors to -92.54 dBm for samples at the highest point. This suggests that while the lower sections of these buildings benefit from stronger 5G coverage, the network infrastructure at the upper floors may not be as robust.

Reliable 5G coverage in skyscrapers requires targeted network solutions

Skyscrapers play a key role in modern cities as business hubs, residential spaces, and major tourist attractions, making strong indoor 5G coverage essential. Tourists visiting observation decks, businesses operating in high-rise offices, and residents in skyscraper apartments all require seamless connectivity for work, communication, and entertainment. However, the primary challenge lies in delivering consistent performance and quality across various indoor settings, where issues may be confined to certain floors or sections. Modern building materials, such as low-emissivity (Low-E) glass, can significantly impact 5G signal attenuation by blocking or reflecting radio frequencies, especially in high-frequency bands like mmWave.

These challenges highlight the need for dedicated indoor solutions such as small cell deployments, distributed antenna systems (DAS), and enhanced in-building network infrastructure. An alternative to deploying in-building 5G systems is to selectively offload usage to Wi-Fi provided these systems are designed, optimized, and operated to deliver an equivalent quality of experience – this can be done using Ekahau.

As 5G continues to evolve, telecom providers and building developers must work together to improve indoor network quality, ensuring that users at all levels of a skyscraper experience fast, stable, and uninterrupted connectivity. For operators, 5G indoor deployments are a strategic avenue to monetize their investments through advances such as massive IoT (IoT), enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), and fixed wireless access (FWA), which will all play an important role in transformation across sectors such as industrial automation, retail applications, and smart cities.

Ookla can assist operators in identifying buildings or indoor venues with coverage or capacity issues using crowdsourced data and diagnosis. Powered by millions of signal measurements collected daily by Speedtest®, Cell Analytics provides intelligence about wireless service quality, RF measurements, data usage, user density, cell site locations, and much more. To find out more about Cell Analytics, please get in touch.

Ookla retains ownership of this article including all of the intellectual property rights, data, content graphs and analysis. This article may not be quoted, reproduced, distributed or published for any commercial purpose without prior consent. Members of the press and others using the findings in this article for non-commercial purposes are welcome to publicly share and link to report information with attribution to Ookla.

UAE
Global

About the Author

Affandy Johan

Ookla Research™ Articles
| March 24, 2025

FWA Subscribers Benefit from Robust Download Speeds

In a boost of confidence for FWA, both T-Mobile and Verizon announced  plans to expand their service beyond their initial subscriber targets

Editor’s note: This report was revised on April 11 to reflect updates to AT&T’s median upload and download speeds.

Key Takeaways:

  • As of Q4 2024, T-Mobile’s fixed wireless access (FWA) subscriber base now tops 6.43 million. However, that growth in FWA subscribers hasn’t impacted the company’s download speeds. T-Mobile’s FWA median download speeds increased more than 50% from 134.99 Mbps in Q4 2023 to 205.44 Mbps in Q4 2024.  
  • A late entrant into the FWA space because it launched service in August 2023,  AT&T’s Internet Air FWA customers experience strong median download speeds of 125.93 Mbps (as of  Q4 2024). 
  • T-Mobile consistently outpaces the competition when it comes to median upload speeds. 
  • Verizon and T-Mobile have both recently increased their goals for the number of FWA subscribers they plan to attract by 2028. Verizon increased its goal to 8 million to 9 million by 2028 and T-Mobile increased its goal to 12 million by 2028. 

5G fixed wireless access (FWA) has steadily gained popularity in the U.S. over the past four years and now the service has more than 11.5 million subscribers —and that’s just counting the FWA subscribers from the big three nationwide operators. Today FWA is considered a viable broadband competitor, and its traction with customers has caused many cable operators to lose customers to FWA.

Download Speeds on the Rise

Although there have been concerns about traffic from FWA subscribers causing congestion and negatively impacting the performance of both mobile and FWA customers because the same 5G spectrum is being used to deliver both services, Ookla® Speedtest® data found that hasn’t been the case. T-Mobile’s FWA subscriber base, which now tops 6.43 million actually saw its median download speeds increase more than 50% from a median download speed of 134.99 Mbps in Q4 2023 to a median download speed of 205.44 Mbps in Q4 2024.  This increase in speed isn’t surprising, as T-Mobile executives told investors during the company’s Capital Markets Day last October that they have seen a 3x increase in customers FWA speeds since the service was launched in Q1 2021. 

But T-Mobile isn’t the only operator seeing an increase in FWA speeds. Verizon, which has more than 4.3 million FWA subscribers, saw its median download speed rise more than 12% from 132.55 Mbps in Q4 2023 to 150.47 Mbps in Q4 2024. AT&T, which only launched its Internet Air service in August 2023, ended the year with a median download speed of 125.93 Mbps. 

T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert addressed questions about congestion negatively impacting performance during the company’s recent Q4 2024 earnings call with investors by saying that the company studies algorithms that can determine  its network capacity levels in such detail that they know when certain sectors of specific towers are becoming congested. “When approving applicants for fixed [wireless] in the first place we study our algorithm,” Sievert said, adding that if the algorithm says that the sector will continue to have excess capacity, then T-Mobile will approve an applicant for home broadband. 

“We don’t see sectors or towers becoming saturated due to fixed wireless,” he added. 

Chart of U.S. 5G FWA Customer Median Download Speeds

T-Mobile’s FWA  download speeds steadily increased from Q4 2023 until Q4 2024.


Minimizing Capacity Constraints with Speed Caps

Taking a cue from its cable counterparts, Verizon has started managing its network capacity by capping its FWA download speeds at 300 Mbps. When we looked at the 90th percentile of Download Speeds for Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T, it appears that Verizon is enforcing those data speed caps, which it spells out in its 5G Home broadband price plan disclosures. The company has three tiers of service for its FWA service. There’s a top-tier 5G Home Plus that provides up to 1 Gbps download speeds using its 5G Ultra Wideband or mmWave spectrum and a mid-tier 5G Home Plus plan that provides up to 300 Mbps download speeds that uses just 5G Ultra Wideband spectrum. The lower tier 5G Home plan provides up to 300 Mbps download speeds using 5G Ultra Wideband or mmWave spectrum. Currently Verizon has the 5G Home Plus plans priced at $55 per month and the lower tier 5G Home plan priced at $35 per month.  

Similar to Verizon, T-Mobile offers three tiers of service: All-In Home Internet plan priced at $70 per month (or $55/mo. with a voice line) that features typical download speeds of 133 Mbps to 415 Mbps and includes streaming services Hulu+ and Paramount+; Amplified Home Internet that costs $60 per month (or $45/mo. With a voice line) and features typical download speeds of 133 Mbps to 415 Mbps; and Rely that costs $50 per month (or $35/mo. With a voice line) and features typical download speeds of 87 Mbps to 315 Mbps). 

Although Speedtest data doesn’t indicate that T-Mobile is slowing down the speeds or capping the speeds of its FWA customers at this time, T-Mobile does say on its web site that during times of congestion, Home Internet customers that use more than 1.2 TB of data per month might see their speeds reduced due to data prioritization. T-Mobile said it started implementing this soft cap on its new FWA subscribers in January 2024 and expanded it to all its FWA subscribers later that year. 

Chart of U.S. 5G FWA 90th Percentile Customer Download Speeds

When looking at the 90th percentile of Speedtest users download speeds, it’s evident that Verizon is capping its download speeds slightly above 300 Mbps.

FWA Upload Speeds Are Improving

Upload speeds are becoming increasingly important to consumers and remote workers for activities such as conducting live video calls without lag or doing online collaboration and sharing of files without having hiccups in the workflow. 

Our data shows that median FWA upload speeds increased from Q4 2023 to Q4 2024 with T-Mobile’s upload speeds consistently outpacing the competition. T-Mobile’s upload speed increased 9.05% from 19.88 Mbps in Q4 2023 to 21.68 Mbps in Q4 2024. 


Verizon saw its median upload speeds increase over 7% from 12.84 Mbps in Q4 2023 to 13.88 in Q4 2024. AT&T’s Internet Air median upload speeds dropped 17.16% from 15.89 Mbps in Q4 2023 to 13.17 Mbps in Q4 2024.

Chart of U.S. 5G FWA Customer Median Upload Speeds

T-Mobile’s upload speeds surpass that of AT&T and Verizon.

Latency Ebbs and Flows

Unlike FWA upload and download speeds that have improved from Q4 2023 until Q4 2024, latency figures have remained somewhat static for Verizon and AT&T while T-Mobile’s latency has declined. Latency is a key measurement because higher latency will impact real-time applications such as online gaming and video conferencing. 

AT&T’s latency of  74 milliseconds (ms) in Q4 2023 and 73 ms in Q4 2024 was consistently higher than both T-Mobile and Verizon. T-Mobile saw its latency decline from 61 ms in Q3 2023 to 52 ms in Q4 2024 and Verizon saw its latency rise slightly from 52 ms in Q4 2023 to 53 ms in Q4 2024.

Chart of U.S. 5G FWA Customer Median Latency

AT&T’s latency was consistently higher than T-Mobile and Verizon.

Moving the Subscriber Goal Post 

T-Mobile and Verizon executives are both so bullish on FWA (and the revenue it’s generating for the companies) that both recently increased their FWA subscriber goals. 

Verizon doubled the number of FWA subscribers that it plans to acquire to between 8 million to 9 million by 2028, up from the initial goal of attracting 4 million to 5 million customers by the end of this year.  

Likewise T-Mobile executives said during the company’s Capital Market Days in October 2024 that they were increasing their FWA customer target to 12 million by 2028, up from its initial goal of providing FWA service to 7 million to 8 million customers by 2025. T-Mobile is planning to continue with its same strategy, which is to deliver FWA in areas where there is fallow spectrum and the network isn’t constrained. This is particularly applicable in rural areas where T-Mobile has spectrum and towers but also fewer mobile users. 

AT&T is a bit of a newcomer to the FWA, having just launched its 5G FWA service in August 2023. The company said it ended Q4 2024 with more than 650,000 Internet Air subscribers. However, AT&T CEO John Stankey has publicly stated that the company views FWA as a stopgap tool for capturing customers who don’t have a satisfactory broadband connection, including those using AT&T’s DSL service. FWA allows AT&T to keep those customers but its long-term goal is to eventually upsell them to fiber when it’s available. 

Chart of U.S. 5G FWA Subscriber Growth - Verizon and T-Mobile

Consumers keen on FWA

Since T-Mobile and Verizon first launched their FWA offerings in 2021 they’ve steadily grown their customer base. In fact, FWA is a popular choice for consumers, often because it’s slightly less expensive than fiber or cable but also because it’s easy for them to purchase, install and return if it doesn’t meet their expectations.

According to Recon Analytics, which conducted interviews with 288,490 Americans between July 2023 and December 2024, 44% of respondents said they would choose an FWA provider for their next broadband provider if they had to make that choice, 25% said they would pick a fiber provider and 17% said they would select a cable provider. The remaining said they would choose DSL or a satellite provider. 

Likewise, an April 2024 report from JD Power found that 5G FWA users have the highest satisfaction of all broadband providers, with fiber coming in second place. 

But even though overall satisfaction for FWA is high, when we look at the download speeds of the 10th percentile of Speedtest users by hour of day we see that customers in this category are experiencing some unsatisfactory speeds, particularly in the afternoon and evening when the network is the busiest. According to our data, T-Mobile Speedtest users in the 10th percentile saw their speeds dip to 13.50 Mbps at 8 p.m. while Verizon Speedtest users saw their speeds dip to 15.81 Mbps at that time and AT&T users saw their speeds drop to 15.99 Mbps. 

Chart of U.S. 5G FWA 10th Percentile Customer Download Speeds by Hour of Day


FWA Performance is Evolving

Although T-Mobile, Verizon and AT&T were the focus of this FWA report because they have the most FWA customers, there are smaller regional operators that also offer FWA service  such as USCellular, which reported having 150,000 FWA customers at the end of Q4 2024.  In addition, Cspire recently launched  FWA service to customers in Mississippi and fiber provider BrightSpeed recently said it plans to launch an FWA service in partnership with Verizon.  There are many small wireless ISPs also offering FWA using unlicensed spectrum throughout the country.

We expect the FWA market to continue to grow and evolve and we will continue to measure their performance, particularly with these new FWA subscriber goals from T-Mobile and Verizon coupled with AT&T’s FWA growth in the market. Verizon also revealed that it plans to commercially launch an FWA product using millimeter wave (mmWave) spectrum to deliver 1 Gbps speeds to multi-dwelling units (MDUs). That FWA product is currently in customer trials and is expected to launch soon. 

 It will be interesting to see if U.S. operators are able to continue to deliver strong download and upload speeds to FWA customers and still grow their customer base as rapidly as they have over the past few years.  

If you are interested in learning about how 5G FWA is reshaping the broadband market in the Gulf region, please check out this other FWA report  from Ookla.  To find out more about Speedtest Intelligence® data and insights, please contact us here.

Ookla analyst Kerry Baker contributed to this report. 

Ookla retains ownership of this article including all of the intellectual property rights, data, content graphs and analysis. This article may not be quoted, reproduced, distributed or published for any commercial purpose without prior consent. Members of the press and others using the findings in this article for non-commercial purposes are welcome to publicly share and link to report information with attribution to Ookla.

About the Author

Sue Marek

Ookla Research™ Articles
| December 20, 2021

Starlink Expands but Q3 2021 Performance Flattens in Some Areas

Network Evolution


Satellite internet is making headlines across the globe as Starlink continues to launch service in new countries and Viasat plans to acquire Inmarsat. We’re here to check in on our ongoing series on satellite internet performance around the globe with fresh data from Q3 2021 to see if Starlink’s performance is holding up and how satellite internet compares to fixed broadband in 12 countries.

United States: Starlink fastest, speeds decreasing

Consumers in the U.S. looking to use satellite service to connect to the internet will find that performance was mostly flat when comparing Q3 2021 to Q2 2021. Starlink’s median download speed decreased from 97.23 Mbps during Q2 2021 to 87.25 Mbps in Q3 2021, which could be a function of adding more customers. HughesNet followed distantly at 19.30 Mbps (comparable to the 19.73 Mbps we saw in Q2 2021) and Viasat third at 18.75 Mbps (18.13 Mbps in Q2 2021). For comparison, the median download speed for all fixed broadband providers in the U.S. during Q3 2021 was 119.84 Mbps (115.22 Mbps in Q2 2021).

ookla_satellite-performance_us_1221-01-1

Starlink’s median upload speed of 13.54 Mbps (down from 13.89 Mbps in Q2 2021) was much closer to that on all fixed broadband (18.03 Mbps in Q3 2021 and 17.18 Mbps in Q2 2021). Viasat and HughesNet followed at 2.96 Mbps (3.38 Mbps in Q2 2021) and 2.54 Mbps (2.43 Mbps in Q2 2021), respectively.
As we saw last quarter, Starlink, which uses low earth orbit (LEO) satellites, was the only satellite internet provider with a median latency anywhere near that seen on fixed broadband in Q3 2021 (44 ms and 15 ms, respectively). Viasat and HughesNet, which both utilize higher “geosynchronous” orbits, had median latencies of 629 ms and 744 ms, respectively.

Starlink performance varies at the county level

We saw sufficient samples during Q3 2021 to analyze Starlink performance in 304 counties in the U.S. While there was about a 100 Mbps range in performance between the county with the fastest median download speed (Santa Fe County, New Mexico at 146.58 Mbps) and the county with the slowest median download speed (Drummond Township, Michigan at 46.63 Mbps), even the lower-end speeds are well above the FCC’s Baseline performance tier of at least a 25 Mbps download speed.

ookla_united_states_median_download_starlink_map_1221g-01-1

Satellite internet performance elsewhere in the world

We examined satellite internet performance in countries with an established market share to see how well their speeds compare to local fixed broadband. We’re excited to add analysis on satellite performance in Australia and Belgium this quarter.

Australia: Starlink outperformed Viasat and fixed broadband average

Starlink radically outperformed Viasat in Australia during Q3 2021 with a median download speed of 138.12 Mbps to Viasat’s 15.60 Mbps. Starlink also outpaced Viasat for median upload speed at 22.63 Mbps and 1.04 Mbps, respectively. Compared to the median download speed over all fixed broadband of 51.17 Mbps, Starlink could be an attractive alternative to traditional fixed broadband on all levels except latency where Starlink showed 42 ms vs. 10 ms for all fixed broadband combined.

ookla_satellite-performance_au_1221-01-1

Belgium: Starlink dramatically faster than fixed broadband

Starlink’s median download speed of 127.46 Mbps during Q3 2021 was dramatically faster than the country’s median download for all fixed broadband of 72.90 Mbps. At 16.73 Mbps, Starlink’s median upload speed was only slightly slower than the overall median of 17.98 Mbps. However, Starlink’s 49 ms latency was higher than the country’s average of 13 ms. Starlink was the only satellite internet provider with adequate samples to analyze in Belgium during Q3 2021.

ookla_satellite-performance_be_1221-01

Brazil: Viasat close to national average

Viasat’s median download speed in Brazil improved to 66.32 Mbps during Q3 2021 (up from 60.30 Mbps in Q2 2021. This was close to the national median for fixed broadband of 71.50 Mbps. Viasat’s median upload speed (1.06 Mbps) was much slower, however, than that on fixed broadband (36.37 Mbps), and Viasat’s latency was much higher (615 ms vs 6 ms).

ookla_satellite-performance_br_1221-01-1

Canada: Starlink performance relatively flat

Our previous article showed that Starlink’s median download speed exceeded that of fixed broadband in Canada during Q2 2021 (86.92 Mbps vs. 84.24 Mbps). In Q3 2021, Starlink’s median download speed decreased slightly to 84.55 Mbps while that over all fixed broadband increased to 90.67 Mbps. This is in line with what we expect to see on new technologies as additional users are added to a system. Starlink’s median upload speed was slower than fixed broadband (13.87 Mbps vs. 20.67 Mbps). Latency on Starlink was much higher (56 ms vs. 12 ms). Starlink is still a viable alternative to fixed broadband in Canada, especially for consumers without access to other options.

ookla_satellite-performance_ca_1221-01-1

Starlink faster than overall fixed broadband in 5 provinces

Starlink showed enough samples to analyze performance in nine out of 10 provinces in Canada during Q3 2021. Starlink’s Q3 2021 median download speed was faster than the median for all fixed broadband in five provinces: Manitoba (81.04 Mbps vs. 65.91 Mbps), Nova Scotia (109.60 Mbps vs. 99.82 Mbps), Prince Edward Island (118.02 Mbps vs. 46.86 Mbps), Quebec (92.59 Mbps vs. 72.07 Mbps) and Saskatchewan (97.67 Mbps vs. 57.59 Mbps). Download speeds were comparable between Starlink and overall fixed broadband in New Brunswick (104.56 Mbps vs. 104.28 Mbps), and overall fixed broadband was faster than Starlink in Alberta (92.65 Mbps vs. 82.48 Mbps), British Columbia (111.36 Mbps vs. 87.34 Mbps) and Ontario (86.26 Mbps vs. 79.54 Mbps).

ookla_canada_median_download_starlink_map_1221g-01

Chile: HughesNet slower than fixed broadband average

HughesNet was hard pressed to compete with Chile’s fixed broadband, which ranked fourth in the world during October 2021. HughesNet showed a 15.21 Mbps median download speed compared during Q3 2021 with the country’s fixed broadband average of 133.81 Mbps during the same period. Median upload speeds also showed a wide gap (3.50 Mbps for HughesNet to 62.18 Mbps on fixed broadband), and HughesNet’s latency was very high (626 ms vs. 8 ms).

ookla_satellite-performance_cl_1221-01-1

Colombia: HughesNet slow but improving

HughesNet’s median download speed increased in Q3 2021 to 12.12 Mbps (up from 9.28 Mbps during Q2 2021), compared with Colombia’s 46.08 Mbps for fixed broadband overall (35.90 Mbps in Q2 2021). Median upload speed was also slower using the satellite internet provider (3.05 Mbps) than fixed broadband (10.50 Mbps), and latency was much higher on satellite (753 ms vs. 15 ms).

ookla_satellite-performance_co_1221-01-1

France: Starlink speeds decreasing, remains faster than fixed broadband average

Starlink users in France saw a median download speed of 102.15 Mbps in Q3 2021 (down from 139.39 Mbps in Q2 2021, likely due to increased usage). Starlink’s download speed easily beat the country-wide median for fixed broadband of 75.47 Mbps (up from 70.81 Mbps in Q2 2021). Starlink’s upload speed during Q3 2021 was slower than the fixed broadband median (19.84 Mbps vs. 56.66 Mbps), and Starlink’s latency was higher (54 ms vs. 13 ms).

ookla_satellite-performance_fr_1221-01

Germany: Starlink faster than country average for fixed broadband

Starlink’s median download speed in Germany of 95.40 Mbps was much faster than the country median of 60.99 Mbps during Q3 2021. Starlink was slightly slower for upload speed than overall fixed broadband (17.63 Mbps vs. 21.05 Mbps) and Starlink showed a higher latency (45 ms vs. 15 ms).

ookla_satellite-performance_de_1221-01-1

Mexico: Viasat faster than HughesNet for downloads

Viasat, with a median download speed of 14.94 Mbps during Q3 2021 (up from 13.95 Mbps in Q2 2021), was faster than HughesNet (10.64 Mbps in Q3 2021, down from 11.92 Mbps in Q2 2021) but slower than the country’s median for fixed broadband (33.14 Mbps in Q3 2021, 29.99 Mbps in Q2 2021). HughesNet was slightly faster than Viasat for upload speed during Q3 2021 (3.21 Mbps vs. 2.03 Mbps). While Viasat’s latency was high (675 ms vs 12 ms for fixed broadband), it was lower than HughesNet’s (748 ms).

ookla_satellite-performance_mx_1221-01-1

New Zealand: Starlink slowed slightly, remained faster than fixed broadband average

Starlink’s Q3 2021 median download speed (120.10 Mbps, down from 127.02 Mbps in Q2 2021, likely due to increased usage) was much faster than New Zealand’s median fixed broadband download speed (84.98 in Q3 2021 up from 78.85 Mbps in Q2 2021). Starlink was slower than New Zealand’s overall fixed broadband for Q3 2021 upload speed (16.87 Mbps vs. 23.62 Mbps). While Starlink’s median latency improved from 101 ms in Q2 2021 to 81 ms in Q3 2021, it was still slower than New Zealand’s median for all fixed broadband of 7 ms during Q3 2021.

ookla_satellite-performance_nz_1221-01-1

United Kingdom: Starlink nearly twice as fast as fixed broadband average

Starlink showed a much faster median download speed in the U.K. during Q3 2021 (111.66 Mbps, up from 108.30 Mbps in Q2 2021) than the country’s median for fixed broadband (53.16 Mbps in Q3 2021, up from 50.14 Mbps in Q2 2021). Starlink’s upload speed was comparable to the median for all fixed broadband in the U.K. (16.02 Mbps vs. 15.77 Mbps), and the latency was pretty good, given the distance traveled (37 ms vs. 15 ms).

ookla_satellite-performance_uk_1221-01-1

We look forward to updating this data again next quarter with new locations as satellite internet continues to become a more viable option for many. If you’re using satellite internet, take a Speedtest to help us provide an accurate picture of real-world performance.

Ookla retains ownership of this article including all of the intellectual property rights, data, content graphs and analysis. This article may not be quoted, reproduced, distributed or published for any commercial purpose without prior consent. Members of the press and others using the findings in this article for non-commercial purposes are welcome to publicly share and link to report information with attribution to Ookla.

Network Evolution
Satellite

About the Author

Isla McKetta

Ookla Research™ Articles
| November 30, 2022

Starlink Speeds Dipped Slightly During Q3 2022 as the Space Race Heats up

Network Evolution

Ookla® has exciting, fresh data from Q3 2022 for SpaceX’s Starlink, HughesNet, and Viasat in North and South America, as well as new Starlink markets we haven’t yet featured in our ongoing series on satellite internet. With accelerating competition on the horizon for 2023, we’ve been eager to see how Starlink continues to perform, especially as building new fiber connections continues to be costly around the world. 

This analysis includes results from five additional countries, two new providers, and expanded data for Starlink, HughesNet, and Viasat. We also examine how Starlink’s internet performance has changed over the past year in Canada, Chile, and the United States.

Starlink performance dipped once again during Q3 2022 (though only slightly)

Chart of Starlink perfromance in select North and South American countries

Perhaps a victim of their own success, Starlink download speeds dropped once again in Canada (at least 14%) and the U.S. (at least 17%) from Q2 to Q3 2022, while speeds remained roughly the same in Chile quarter over quarter. During the same period, fixed broadband performance raced ahead, improving at least 8% to 115.18 Mbps in Canada, at least 4% to 207.04 Mbps in Chile, and at least 8% to 164.13 Mbps in the U.S. 

Over the past year, as we’ve seen more users flock to sign up for Starlink (reaching 400,000 users worldwide during Q2 2022), speeds have started to decrease. Without a doubt, Starlink often can be a life-changing service for consumers where connectivity is inadequate or nonexistent. Even as speeds slow, they still provide more than enough connectivity to do almost everything consumers normally need to do, including streaming 4K video and video messaging. The biggest thing you might have issues with is if you’re trying to play multiplayer online games — even being a low-earth orbit (LEO) satellite, latency still lags far behind low-latency fixed broadband connections.

Starlink upload speeds remained roughly unchanged in all three countries we surveyed during Q3 2022, improving marginally in Canada and Chile, and essentially staying the same in the U.S. 

Starlink remains a boon for rural U.S. consumers who can afford it

Map of Starlink expansion in U.S. counties

Over the past year, Starlink has proliferated across the U.S., going from having at least 10 unique users in 776 U.S. counties, or roughly 25% of all counties during Q2-Q3 2021 to 2,399 counties in Q2-Q3 2022, or roughly 75% of counties. That marks about a 200% increase year over year, indicating consumer confidence in the provider. 

Looking at only “nonmetro” counties as defined by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, 336 counties showed at least 10 Starlink users in Q2-Q3 2021. That was about 17% of all nonmetro counties. In Q2-Q3 2022, that rose to 1359 counties, or about 69% of nonmetro counties, marking about a 300% increase year over year. 

Starlink in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands had the fastest satellite internet in North America

Chart of satellite performance compared to fixed broadband internet in North America

Speedtest Intelligence® reveals that Starlink in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands had the fastest median download speed among satellite providers in North America at 85.88 Mbps and 85.57 Mbps during Q3 2022. Starlink in the Dominican Republic (72.01 Mbps), Canada (65.80 Mbps), Mexico (64.30 Mbps), and the U.S. (53.00 Mbps) followed. Starlink had faster median download speeds than all fixed broadband providers combined in all of these countries except Canada and the U.S., and Viasat outperformed fixed broadband in the Dominican Republic (22.92 Mbps). 

Viasat and HughesNet recorded their fastest median download speeds in Puerto Rico at 36.65 Mbps and 22.19 Mbps, respectively. Almost every satellite provider on our list reached speeds fast enough to stream high-quality video at around 20 Mbps, though latency still was much higher than fixed broadband internet.

For upload speeds, Starlink outperformed fixed broadband providers combined in the Dominican Republic (14.68 Mbps to 5.83 Mbps) and the U.S. Virgin Islands (12.59 Mbps to 8.37 Mbps). Fixed broadband providers in Canada had the fastest upload on our list at 29.29 Mbps.

Multi-server latency showed satellite internet’s limits, with the huge distances between satellite and receivers adding up to long lags — and every satellite provider with higher latencies than fixed broadband providers. However, the Dominican Republic and U.S. Virgin Islands still had higher fixed broadband multi-server latencies at 55.45 ms and 76.15 ms, respectively. Starlink in the U.S. had the lowest multi-server latency at 67.16 ms, followed by Canada (77.32 ms), and Mexico (96.42 ms), which were the only satellite options that had a multi-server latency under 100 ms.

Starlink in Brazil was the fastest satellite provider in South America

Chart of satellite performance compared to fixed broadband internet in South America

Brazilian satellite consumers weren’t lacking for fast internet options during Q3 2022, with Starlink blazing ahead among satellite providers in South America at 112.97 Mbps. Even Viasat notched a respectable median download speed of 45.15 Mbps. Starlink in Brazil was also the only satellite provider to outperform its country’s fixed broadband speeds, with ultrafast fixed broadband in Chile pulling ahead of Starlink 207.04 Mbps to 92.58 Mbps. Colombia was statistically too close to call in Q3 2022 with Starlink at 71.42 Mbps and fixed broadband at 83.76 Mbps. HughesNet trailed far behind with its fastest speed in Chile at 22.62 Mbps during Q3 2022.

For upload speeds, fixed broadband providers in every country we surveyed were faster than their satellite counterparts during Q3 2022. Starlink in Colombia had the fastest upload speed among satellite providers at 24.48 Mbps.

Speedtest Intelligence reveals multi-server latency told a similar story, with every country’s fixed broadband providers having a lower multi-server latency than their satellite counterparts. However, Starlink in Brazil and Chile had the lowest satellite multi-server latencies at 52.21 ms and 52.32 ms, respectively, during Q3 2022. Viasat and HughesNet lowest latencies were far behind with Viasat in Brazil at 670.63 ms and HughesNet in Chile at 713.04 ms.

New Q3 2022 Starlink countries have mixed results

Chart of satellite performance compared to fixed broadband internet in select countries

Speedtest Intelligence data shows Starlink data in six new countries during Q3 2022, including Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Estonia, Moldova, Norway, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Starlink in Estonia (93.48 Mbps), the U.S. Virgin Islands (85.57 Mbps), and the Dominican Republic (72.01 Mbps) were much faster options than fixed broadband providers in their respective countries during Q3 2022. Starlink in Norway (113.86 Mbps) and Colombia (71.42 Mbps) were statistically in the same range as fixed broadband providers in their respective countries during the same time period. Starlink in Moldova (53.11 Mbps) was much slower than all fixed broadband providers combined (105.65 Mbps), though for rural folks with fewer options, still provides a speedy connection.

In all six countries, Starlink underperformed all fixed broadband providers combined for upload speed during Q3 2022, lagging behind from 12.59 Mbps to 24.48 Mbps, while median fixed broadband upload speeds ranged from 30.66 Mbps to 93.80 Mbps.

Multi-server latency was generally much higher than fixed broadband, with Starlink in Colombia showing the lowest multi-server latency at 58.65 ms, followed by Norway (73.00 ms), Estonia (85.37 ms), Moldova (105.26 ms), the Dominican Republic (110.62 ms), and the U.S. Virgin Islands (113.12 ms). 

The great space race is on

There is no doubt a new space race for connectivity is being waged across the world. Competitors are pouring hundreds of millions and even billions into unlocking the celestial connectivity dilemma. Here are some major updates about what’s next for various different satellite competitors:

With the competition for satellite connectivity heating up and Starlink facing potentially more competition in the coming months, we’ll be keeping our eyes to the sky to see how connectivity is performing. We’ll continue our series next quarter with Q3-Q4 2022 data from Europe and Oceania and any new countries where Starlink launches, and be back with North and South America data in Q2 2023. In the meantime, be sure to download the Speedtest app for Windows and Mac computers or for iOS or Android for devices and see how your satellite internet stacks up to our findings.

Ookla retains ownership of this article including all of the intellectual property rights, data, content graphs and analysis. This article may not be quoted, reproduced, distributed or published for any commercial purpose without prior consent. Members of the press and others using the findings in this article for non-commercial purposes are welcome to publicly share and link to report information with attribution to Ookla.

Network Evolution
Satellite
U.S. Virgin Islands

About the Author

Josh Fomon

Ookla Research™ Articles
| September 20, 2022

Starlink Slowed in Q2, Competitors Mounting Challenges

Network Evolution

Ookla® has covered SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet for over a year now with our ongoing series on satellite internet performance. We’ve seen Starlink launch in new locations across the world, and while some speeds have shown signs of slowing down from their initial launches, the newly announced T-Mobile partnership with Starlink could extend the benefit of satellite connections to the mobile market.

Today, we have fresh data on satellite performance during Q2 2022 in Europe, Oceania, North America, and South America. This analysis includes results from eight additional countries, two new providers, and expanded data for Starlink, HughesNet, and Viasat. We also examine how Starlink’s internet performance has changed over the past year in Canada, France, Germany, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Starlink speeds decreased in every country we surveyed over the past year as more users sign up for service

Chart of Starlink performances in select countries

Speedtest Intelligence® reveals that median download speeds for Starlink fell across Canada, France, Germany, New Zealand, the U.K, and the U.S., dropping between 9% and 54% from Q2 2021 to Q2 2022 as more users signed up for the service. However, Starlink still reached a median download speed of at least 60 Mbps in North America during Q2 2022, which is more than enough for at least one connected device to do most everything on the internet including streaming video, downloading games, and chatting on video with friends and family.

Upload speeds also slowed on Starlink, with speeds decreasing across all of the countries we’ve tracked over the past year. Latency fared a little better with latency remaining relatively flat (though high when compared to fixed broadband) in most countries. New Zealand was the outlier, with latency dropping 23 ms. For most users, we still suspect these dips are still worthwhile for areas that have no service, slow service, or few affordable options for fast internet.

Starlink in Puerto Rico was the fastest satellite provider in North America

Chart of Satellite performance versus fixed broadband internet in North America

Starlink in Puerto Rico had the fastest satellite internet in North America during Q2 2022 with a median download speed of 112.22 Mbps, followed by Starlink in Mexico (80.17 Mbps), Canada (75.73 Mbps), and the U.S. (62.53 Mbps). Starlink in Puerto Rico and Mexico was faster than their countries’ fixed broadband providers combined (74.80 Mbps and 45.50 Mbps, respectively), while fixed broadband in the U.S. (150.12 Mbps) and Canada (106.41 Mbps) was faster than each country’s satellite providers.

In every country except Mexico, fixed broadband upload speeds were faster than satellite speeds. Starlink in Mexico edged out fixed broadband providers 14.48 Mbps to 12.20 Mbps. Latency was higher for every satellite provider compared to fixed broadband. Starlink in the U.S. had the lowest median latency among satellite providers at 48 ms.

Starlink outperformed fixed broadband average in 16 European countries

Chart of Satellite performance versus fixed broadband internet in Europe

Speedtest Intelligence shows Starlink was fast in Europe during Q2 2022, outperforming fixed broadband median download speed in 16 countries and reached download speeds over 100 Mbps in 10 countries. In contrast, fixed broadband only achieved median download speeds over 100 Mbps in six countries: Romania, Spain, Portugal, France, Hungary, and the Netherlands during Q2 2022. Starlink was fastest for median download speed in Portugal at 123.01 Mbps, the Netherlands (122.43 Mbps), Austria (112.01 Mbps), France (110.98 Mbps), and Belgium (110.40 Mbps). Romania and Spain were the only countries to have fixed broadband beat Starlink for fastest median download speed, achieving 131.41 Mbps and 127.19 Mbps, respectively.

For upload, Starlink in Greece and Austria was the only satellite provider to achieve faster upload speeds than all fixed broadband providers combined at 19.34 Mbps to 5.14 Mbps, and to 17.14 Mbps to 15.90 Mbps, respectively. Fixed broadband providers in Spain (99.21 Mbps), Romania (94.23 Mbps), Sweden (92.77 Mbps), France (88.22 Mbps), Lithuania (83.54 Mbps), and Portugal (73.13 Mbps) all recorded median upload speeds greater than 70 Mbps, with the closest satellite provider being Starlink in Portugal at 28.52 Mbps.

All satellite providers fell far behind fixed broadband providers in the whole of Europe for latency during Q2 2022. Starlink in Spain and the United Kingdom recorded the lowest satellite latencies at 37 ms and 39 ms, respectively — still a far cry from the closest fixed broadband latency, which was 14 ms in Germany, Greece, and Italy.

Starlink in Brazil was the fastest satellite provider in South America

Chart of Satellite performance versus fixed broadband internet in South America

Our analysis of Speedtest Intelligence data found Starlink in Brazil was the fastest satellite provider in South America with a median download speed of 128.38 Mbps during Q2 2022, followed by Starlink in Chile at 94.79 Mbps. Chilean fixed broadband internet was still much faster for those who could get access to it. The Speedtest Global Index™ found Chile had the second fastest fixed broadband internet in the world with a median download speed of 211.43 Mbps during August 2022. Starlink in Brazil was the only satellite provider to be faster than its country’s fixed broadband providers combined.

Like last quarter, South American fixed broadband providers surpassed satellite providers in each respective upload speeds during Q2 2022. All satellite providers had a higher median latency than fixed broadband, though Starlink in Brazil and Chile had latencies of 38 ms.

Starlink in New Zealand was the fastest satellite provider in Oceania 

Chart of Satellite performance versus fixed broadband internet in Oceania

Starlink’s fastest median download speed in Oceania was in New Zealand at 105.99 Mbps, though this still fell short of fixed broadband providers in the country. Starlink in Australia was faster than fixed broadband providers by a wide margin at 102.76 Mbps to 51.46 Mbps during Q2 2022. Starlink outperformed fixed broadband providers in new-to-our-list Tonga 45.25 Mbps to 22.32 Mbps. 

New Zealand’s fixed broadband dominated for the fastest median upload speed in Oceania at 87.29 Mbps during Q2 2022, while Australia’s fixed broadband fell far behind with an upload speed of 17.86 Mbps. Both speeds were still faster than Starlink’s median upload speeds in New Zealand and Australia (12.31 Mbps and 10.45 Mbps, respectively). Tonga didn’t have a statistical winner for fastest upload speed, but Starlink reached 19.26 Mbps and fixed broadband 18.11 Mbps. Fixed broadband also had a lower median latency than Starlink during Q1 2022, which clocked in at 49 ms in Australia, 78 ms in New Zealand, and 98 ms in Tonga.

Biggest questions lie ahead, but competition will be good for consumers

Satellite connectivity is coming to mobile, with Starlink’s new partnership with T-Mobile and new mobile devices becoming satellite enabled. This will cause ripples across North America, which is a net positive for consumers who live in areas with low mobile and fixed broadband connectivity. Connecting with the world won’t be a question of how anymore, it will be a question of how good your experience is. That’s hopefully a win-win for consumers, especially as more providers vie for the fastest and best satellite experience — a true global space race.

Starlink isn’t stopping there — they’re trying to get into airplanes, cruise ships, and cars. But they’re not the only satellite provider making moves; Viasat is launching its Viasat-3 fleet, OneWeb is combining business with Eutelsat, and Amazon is sending 3,236 Project Kuiper satellites into orbit. We’ll be here monitoring the skies in our ongoing satellite series. Take a Speedtest® to help us provide an accurate and more complete picture of real-world performance. And if we’re missing data on your satellite network, send us a screenshot of your speed on Twitter or Facebook.

Ookla retains ownership of this article including all of the intellectual property rights, data, content graphs and analysis. This article may not be quoted, reproduced, distributed or published for any commercial purpose without prior consent. Members of the press and others using the findings in this article for non-commercial purposes are welcome to publicly share and link to report information with attribution to Ookla.

Network Evolution
Satellite

About the Author

Josh Fomon

Ookla Research™ Articles
| June 28, 2022

Here’s How Fast Starlink Has Gotten Over the Past Year

Network Evolution

It’s been a year since we first examined SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet, which launched its public beta in November 2020. Today we’re updating our ongoing series on satellite internet performance with data from Q1 2022 in Europe, Oceania, North America, and South America, including results from 10 additional countries. We’re also examining how Starlink’s internet performance has changed over the past year in the United States and Canada.

Starlink speeds increased nearly 58% in Canada and 38% in the U.S. over the past year

chart of Starlink and fixed broadband performance in Canada and the United States

Speedtest Intelligence® reveals that median download speeds for Starlink dramatically increased from Q1 2021 to Q1 2022 in the U.S. and Canada, as did speeds for all fixed broadband providers combined. In the U.S., Starlink median download speeds improved roughly 38% from 65.72 Mbps in Q1 2021 to 90.55 Mbps in Q1 2022. In Canada, Starlink’s download speed leapt ahead nearly 58% from 61.84 Mbps to 97.40 Mbps during the same time period.

However, Speedtest Intelligence also showed that upload speeds for Starlink decreased at least 33% in the U.S. (16.29 Mbps in Q1 2021 to 9.33 Mbps in Q1 2022) and at least 36% in Canada (16.69 Mbps to 10.70 Mbps) during the same time period. Median latency on Starlink marginally increased from 40 ms to 43 ms in the U.S. and from 51 ms to 55 ms in Canada during the past year. For many Starlink users, we suspect these changes are negligible.

Starlink in Mexico was the fastest satellite provider in North America

Chart of Satellite performance versus fixed broadband internet in North America

Starlink in Mexico had the fastest satellite internet in North America during Q1 2022 with a median download speed of 105.91 Mbps, followed by Starlink in Canada (97.40 Mbps) and the U.S. (90.55 Mbps). Mexico’s fixed broadband download speed (40.07 Mbps) was much slower than Starlink, while Starlink download speeds were slower than fixed broadband for all providers combined in the U.S. (144.22 Mbps) and Canada (106.86 Mbps). Puerto Rico, new to our list, showed HughesNet had the fastest satellite internet on the island territory at 20.54 Mbps, though fixed broadband was much faster at 68.88 Mbps.

Starlink in Lithuania was the fastest satellite provider in Europe

Chart of satellite performance versus fixed broadband internet in Europe

Speedtest Intelligence showed that Starlink blazed ahead in Europe during Q1 2022, with Starlink achieving a 100+ Mbps median download speed in every country where it was commercially available. In contrast, fixed broadband only achieved median download speeds over 100 Mbps in Spain, Portugal, and the Netherlands during Q1 2022. Starlink was fastest for download speed in Lithuania at 160.08 Mbps, followed by Belgium (147.85 Mbps), Slovakia (146.25 Mbps), Croatia (136.00 Mbps), and Austria (132.61 Mbps). Spain was the only country to have its fixed broadband beat Starlink for fastest median download speed, achieving 131.99 Mbps to Starlink’s 108.43 Mbps within the country.

For upload, fixed broadband providers in Spain (100.65 Mbps), France (86.02 Mbps), Portugal (74.42 Mbps), and Lithuania (73.95 Mbps) all recorded median speeds greater than 70 Mbps, while the closest satellite provider, Starlink in Portugal, trailed at 32.05 Mbps.

All satellite providers fell far behind fixed broadband providers in the whole of Europe for latency during Q1 2022, with Starlink in Spain and the United Kingdom recording the highest satellite latencies at 35 ms and 36 ms, respectively — a far cry from the lowest fixed broadband latency, which was 15 ms in the U.K.

Starlink in Chile was the fastest satellite provider in South America

Chart of Satellite performance versus fixed broadband internet in South America

Our analysis of Speedtest Intelligence data found Starlink in Chile was the fastest satellite provider in South America with a median download speed of 110.49 Mbps during Q1 2022. Although Chilean fixed broadband internet was much faster for those who could get access to it. In fact, during May 2022, the Speedtest Global Index™ found Chile had the second fastest fixed broadband internet in the world with a median download speed of 206.97 Mbps, just a hair shy of Singapore’s first place speed of 209.21 Mbps. 

No South American satellite provider surpassed its country’s fixed broadband download or upload speeds during Q1 2022. Viasat in Brazil had a noteworthy median download speed of 62.07 Mbps, though still fell short of the country’s fixed broadband speed of 90.20 Mbps. All satellite providers had a higher median latency than fixed broadband, though Starlink in Chile had a latency of 38 ms.

Starlink in Australia was the fastest satellite provider in Oceania

Chart of Satellite performance versus fixed broadband internet in Oceania

Starlink raced ahead in Oceania, recording faster median download speeds than fixed broadband in both Australia and New Zealand. In Australia, Starlink had a median download speed of 124.31 Mbps, much faster than Australian fixed broadband at 50.87 Mbps for download during Q1 2022. The comparison in New Zealand was much closer with Starlink’s median download speed at 118.70 Mbps and fixed broadband at 116.83 Mbps during Q1 2022.

New Zealand’s fixed broadband dominated for the fastest median upload speed in Oceania at 84.34 Mbps during Q1 2022, while Australia’s fixed broadband fell far behind with an upload speed at 17.85 Mbps. Both speeds were still faster than Starlink’s median upload speeds in New Zealand and Australia (13.09 Mbps and 11.71 Mbps, respectively). Fixed broadband also had a faster median latency than Starlink during Q1 2022, which clocked in at 47 ms in Australia and 78 ms in New Zealand.

Consumers are flocking to Starlink, but competitors are close behind

As we’ve continued to see over the past year, Starlink’s low-earth orbit satellites (LEOs) provide a life-changing service for consumers in rural areas that might not otherwise have access to high-speed internet. However, more companies are looking to compete with Starlink and launch their own LEO constellations, including Amazon’s Project Kuiper, which recently received FCC permission to test their own satellite service and is slated to launch later this year, and Viasat which is set to merge with Inmarsat and launch new constellations by 2023.

We’ll continue to monitor the skies in our ongoing satellite series, but if you’re using satellite internet, take a Speedtest® to help us provide an accurate and more complete picture of real-world performance.

Editor’s note: This article was amended on June 28 to clarify percentage increases in the U.S. and Canada and to update the percent change for upload for Canada.

Ookla retains ownership of this article including all of the intellectual property rights, data, content graphs and analysis. This article may not be quoted, reproduced, distributed or published for any commercial purpose without prior consent. Members of the press and others using the findings in this article for non-commercial purposes are welcome to publicly share and link to report information with attribution to Ookla.

Network Evolution
Satellite

About the Author

Josh Fomon

Ookla Research™ Articles
| December 18, 2024

Above Maine, Starlink Twinkles

Satellite

The Maine Connectivity Authority (MCA) recently made it possible for homes and businesses in remote locations of the state to become eligible to receive low-Earth orbit satellite internet service from Starlink. According to Ookla data, Starlink Speedtest users in Maine are able to get median download speeds of 116.77 Mbps, which surpasses the FCC’s threshold for broadband.

Maine is a Top 10 state in Ookla’s U.S. Broadband report, ranking 9th with a 30% year-on-year increase in Speedtest users who achieved broadband speeds (1H 2023 vs 1H 2024). Yet only 37.6% of Rural Speedtest users experienced speeds at or above the FCC thresholds of 100 Mbps download and 20 Mbps upload speeds for broadband, lagging its Urban counterparts by 13.3 percentage points.

Taking a look to see how the MCA Starlink program might help, here are current Starlink Speedtest user results in Maine:

1 Oct – 15 Dec 202410th percentile (Slower)Median90th percentile (Faster)
DL (Mbps)22.81116.77250.96
UL (Mbps)6.7918.1727.17
Latency* (ms)724737

* Multi-server latency

With a median of 116.77 Mbps download speed, a majority of Starlink Speedtest users are already exceeding the FCC’s 100 Mbps download speed target minimum. The median upload speed of 18.17 Mbps is close to the FCC’s 20 Mbps upload speed target minimum. 

Taking a look at the slower results (that is, the 10th percentile, where 90% of Speedtest user tests results are faster), this cohort saw download speeds of 22.81 Mbps and upload speeds of 6.79 Mbps. Coincidentally, there exists a lower threshold of 25 Mbps download speed and 3 Mbps upload speed that divides the Unserved (below 25/3 Mbps) from the Underserved (above 25/3 Mbps; over 100/20 Mbps is considered Served by broadband internet). 

These results are based upon the existing end-user equipment and the current satellite constellation. Newer customer premise equipment and recent (and future) satellite launches could improve these results. 

Satellites are an important solution for addressing the digital divide in rural areas, as the MCA program with Starlink represents. The Starlink Speedtest results demonstrate this, and we look forward to revisiting this data as this program takes flight.

Ookla retains ownership of this article including all of the intellectual property rights, data, content graphs and analysis. This article may not be quoted, reproduced, distributed or published for any commercial purpose without prior consent. Members of the press and others using the findings in this article for non-commercial purposes are welcome to publicly share and link to report information with attribution to Ookla.

Satellite
Starlink
Maine

About the Author

Kerry Baker