Satellite and in particular LEO satellite, is experiencing a renaissance in the telecommunications sector. The demand for ubiquitous connectivity is higher than ever, with users expecting seamless internet access regardless of location. Satellites are uniquely positioned to meet this need, offering coverage in remote areas, over oceans, and even during emergencies when terrestrial networks may be compromised. This makes them a crucial component in helping bridge the digital divide, and ensuring communications continuity during outages.
Advancements in satellite technology are making it more efficient and cost-effective. The development of smaller, more powerful satellites, along with innovations in ground station technology, have reduced the barriers to entry for both providers and consumers. This has led to increased competition and innovation in the sector, with new players offering a wider range of services, from high-speed internet to IoT connectivity. As a result, satellites are no longer just a niche solution but a key component of the global telecommunications infrastructure.
This year, the conversations at Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2026 in Barcelona shifted dramatically. While previous years focused heavily on intrinsic challenges for the telecom sector—the need for 5G monetization, the untapped enterprise opportunity, the calls for “fair share”, and the need for network consolidation—this year’s show focused more on upside. The show floor and our discussions were dominated by opportunities around topics such as satellite, sovereignty, amidst the emerging age of AI, and with a view towards the arrival of 6G. Following the event, our Ookla Research analysts—Mike Dano, Mark Giles, Luke Kehoe, and Karim Yaici—sat down to cut through the noise.
The mainstreaming of satellite and NTN
Satellite connectivity and Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTN) have officially moved from a niche talking point to a core architectural consideration.
Key announcements:
Starlink’s Next-Gen Push: Starlink held a massive keynote to announce its second-generation satellite constellation for direct-to-device (D2D), slated to begin offering services in 2028. Deutsche Telekom was announced as their first official customer for this new constellation. The introduction of the “Starlink Mobile” brand looks to be an important but still early stepping stone in a journey toward a more fully-fledged mobile service.
The AST SpaceMobile Counter: AST SpaceMobile continues to make a huge amount of noise, bolstered by a major pre-MWC announcement regarding their deepening partnership and joint venture with Vodafone through Satellite Connect Europe
Our take: Low-Earth-orbit (LEO)-based D2D satellite connectivity is graduating from a novelty feature for hikers into a standard “resilience layer” for mass-market mobile networks. The super-bundle of the future will integrate fiber, cellular, and satellite into a single service that automatically fails over when one link drops. What we are witnessing is a massive race to conquer space.
On one side, you have the operator-backed AST SpaceMobile, which operates without a consumer-facing brand and continues to face delays in constellation buildout. On the other, you have Starlink, which has been incredibly strategic about exposing its brand everywhere,from airline Wi-Fi to fixed broadband, and now mobile. The big question moving forward is whether Starlink’s D2D offering stays at that or is just a stepping stone toward a much more capable, hybrid space-terrestrial mobile offering in the future.
5G-Advanced, 5G Standalone, and the 6G horizon
The industry is balancing the need to monetize existing 5G investments with the architectural groundwork required for 6G.
Key announcements:
5G slice validation: Ookla showcased its own collaboration at the event: an industry-first methodology for testing 5G network slices, co-developed with Ericsson. This specialized proof of concept in the Speedtest app enables real-time validation of differentiated 5G connectivity for ultra-low latency and mission-critical reliability (think slices optimized for gaming or video conferencing).
6G timelines: SoftBank laid down a marker, stating they expect to deliver initial 6G services in 2029, emphasizing the need for massive 400 MHz bands to operate effectively.
AI-RAN commercialization: Nokia executives promised commercial AI-RAN deployments (in collaboration with Nvidia) by 2027, bridging the gap between 5G-Advanced and 6G.
Our take: 5G Standalone (SA) was frequently mentioned as a prerequisite and stepping stone to 6G networks. While our data, released just before MWC, shows huge variation in 5G SA adoption globally, it’s clear that leading operators are leaning into the technology, to launch new services and drive competitive advantage.
When it comes to 6G, the technical momentum is real, but it is tempered by economic caution. Many European operators remain hesitant about undertaking another massive capital expenditure so soon. However, the U.S. likely targeting the 2028 Olympics for early pre-commercial 6G deployment creates a global race dynamic, with rival markets and even operators within the U.S., forced to respond.
Digital sovereignty across the stack
The need for secure, localized telecom and cloud infrastructure is set to become a defining procurement criterion for enterprises and the public sector, especially in Europe. There is now a rigid demand for independent, Europe-anchored solutions that remain within local control. This drive for sovereignty isn’t just about satellite; it extends across the entire telecom stack, particularly the cloud.
Key announcements:
Deutsche Telekom’s Cloud Ambitions: DT delivered a standout presentation at its booth, detailing its heavy investment in its cloud business. It noted it is currently at roughly 80% feature parity with AWS and is pushing for 100% by year-end, with plans to expand its cloud availability regions beyond the DACH.
Orange’s Pan-European Sovereign Edge: Orange joined forces with Deutsche Telekom, Telefónica, TIM, and Vodafone to launch the “European Edge Continuum.” This first-of-its-kind federated edge cloud allows enterprises to deploy applications seamlessly across all five operator networks via a single entry point, providing a secure, sovereign alternative to U.S.-based public hyperscalers.
Post-quantum security: Several Tier-1 operators showcased active implementations of Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) across their networks, ensuring that sovereign data remains secure against future quantum computing threats.
Our take: Digital sovereignty is driving renewed focus from leading telcos in their B2B operations, as demand rises for local platforms capable of hosting sovereign AI models and evolving cloud workloads. For telcos, this is a massive B2B opportunity. By offering secure, localized solutions that align with national data regulations, operators can position themselves as the active shield of the digital economy, moving far beyond basic connectivity.
AI in telecom: moving beyond an efficiency play
AI was omnipresent at MWC26, but the narrative has evolved from generative AI chatbots to “agentic AI” and network-level intelligence.
Key announcements:
AI-Enhanced Calling: Asian operators (like LG Uplus and China Mobile), along with Deutsche Telekom, are injecting new innovation into a historically stagnant area: the calling experience, using AI for real-time translation and network-driven functions like enhanced interactive video. Deutsche Telekom showcased similar examples, drawing on recent announcements around AI-translated calling features in the U.S.
AT&T’s connected AI: AT&T outlined its industrial edge strategy, partnering with major hyperscalers to position its fiber and edge infrastructure as the backbone for enterprise AI workloads.
Our take: AI is framing nearly every technical discussion in telecom, but it’s clear that most of the focus has been on using AI to streamline operations and target cost-cutting. MWC 26 saw this evolve, with developments targeting improvements to the user experience – most notably for voice services, and a renewed focus on the edge with AI-RAN.
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.
Mike Dano is a Lead Industry Analyst in Ookla’s research and content team. He covers the North and South American markets, and global technology trends. Previously, Mike was a journalist covering the global telecom industry for 25 years at publications including RCR Wireless News, Fierce Network and Light Reading.
Mark Giles heads up Ookla Research™, leading a team of expert analysts in transforming the world's largest repository of network performance data into authoritative insights. Mark is passionate about using data to illuminate the state of global connectivity, in order to advocate for a better, more accessible internet for all.
Luke Kehoe leads Ookla’s research and thought leadership efforts in Europe.
An electronic engineering alumnus of University College Dublin, Luke has extensive experience collaborating with mobile operators, telecoms vendors, and government agencies in research and advisory roles across Europe. He has contributed to internationally recognised thought leadership publications in areas such as 5G, IoT, open RAN, and edge computing, working with prestigious organisations like the Telecom Infra Project and the World Economic Forum.
Karim Yaici is the Lead Industry Analyst at Ookla covering the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region. Previously, he directed Analysys Mason's MEA research program, where he was responsible for telecoms forecasts, market reports, consumer surveys, and custom research.
Mobile network download speeds declined by more than 50%, while Starlink usage experienced a nearly 200% increase compared to pre-storm baselines
Less than a year after the April 2025 Iberian Peninsula blackout exposed deep vulnerabilities in Portugal’s telecom infrastructure, the country faced another severe test. Between late January and early February 2026, a rapid succession of powerful extratropical cyclones battered the country, knocking out power to over a million customers, disrupting mobile connectivity for hundreds of thousands, and triggering a dramatic spike in satellite broadband usage. Speedtest Intelligence® data captures the scale of network impact and the emerging role of low-earth orbit (LEO) satellite connectivity as a layer of redundancy when terrestrial networks falter.
Key Takeaways:
Median mobile download speeds in Portugal fell by as much as 52.4% from their pre-storm baseline, dropping from 107.3 Mbps to just 51.1 Mbps at their lowest point on February 8, as successive storms compounded network strain.
Mobile upload speeds declined by up to 46.6%, while latency increased by 15.6% and jitter by 27.1% during the worst of the disruption, reflecting significant network congestion and infrastructure stress.
Starlink user activity in Portugal surged by approximately 196% above pre-storm levels at its peak on February 12, with elevated adoption persisting well into late February even as mobile networks began to stabilize.
The data highlights a clear network substitution pattern, with Starlink activity climbing in near-lockstep with mobile speed declinesand fixed network disruptions, reinforcing the case for satellite as a meaningful resilience layer during prolonged terrestrial outages.
Portugal, like many European countries outside the Nordics, continues to lack any binding requirements for specific minimum backup power levels at mobile sites. Recent policy developments in Switzerland and in the EU’s Digital Networks Act (DNA) suggest resilience planning is moving from concept to practical action.
A devastating storm sequence
Storm Kristin made landfall in Portugal’s Leiria district on the night of January 28, 2026, bringing record-breaking winds of over 200 km/h in the Coimbra region and generating over 1,500 emergency incidents in a single night. The storm was the most destructive to hit the country in recent memory, surpassing wind speed records previously held by Hurricane Leslie. Initial disruption was severe, with Reuters reporting more than 3,000 weather-related incidents and electricity distributor E-REDES indicating that outage levels had earlier reached 855,000 customers before restoration work began to reduce that figure.
On the grid side, the damage split across transmission and distribution layers. REN reported 61 very high-voltage pylons knocked down during Storm Kristin and 774 km of very high-voltage lines out of operation, which it said was equivalent to about 7% of Portugal’s transmission grid. E-REDES separately reported more than 600 damaged medium-voltage poles and said that more than one million customers had been left without power at one stage of the event. This distinction is significant because it highlights how resilience bottlenecks emerge across multiple network tiers, not only at the local distribution level.
Telecom disruption was also prolonged. Paulo Fernandes (head of the Central Region Reconstruction Mission Structure) said the affected area started with 307,900 mobile and landline users without communications on 30 January, and that nearly 84,000 customers in the central region still lacked communications almost three weeks later. He also said around 40% of cases were linked to the restoration of electricity supply to mobile sites.
This power dependency aligns with local expert commentary. INESC TEC-linked analysis highlighted that many telecom outages were driven first by loss of electricity at network sites, with a share of the remainder linked to infrastructure faults such as fiber breaks. It was also reported that ANACOM had recommended activation of national roaming, which could help by allowing users to attach to alternative networks where available.
Mobile network performance degradation was severe and sustained, with recovery still ongoing
Analysis of Speedtest Intelligence data paints a detailed picture of how Portugal’s mobile networks responded to the storm sequence. To assess the impact, we established a pre-storm performance baseline using daily median values from January 3 through January 27, 2026, then measured deviations across three distinct phases of disruption.
Prior to the storms, Portugal’s mobile networks were delivering a median download speed of 107.3 Mbps and median upload speed of 15.7 Mbps, with a multi-server latency of 33.5 ms. These figures are consistent with a well-performing mobile market (ranking in the top 30 globally in the latest iteration of the Speedtest Global Index).
The onset of Storm Kristin on January 28 triggered an immediate and sharp decline. Median download speeds fell to 64.5 Mbps that day, a 39.9% drop from baseline, while upload speeds declined 37.4% to 9.8 Mbps. Latency spiked 15.6% to 39 ms and jitter surged 27.1% to 10 ms, indicating significant network congestion as damaged infrastructure concentrated traffic on surviving cells (likely compounded by the loss of fixed connectivity in homes driving more traffic onto the depleted mobile grid).
Rather than recovering, network performance continued to deteriorate in the days that followed as Storms Leonardo and Marta exacerbated the damage. During the sustained disruption phase from February 1 through 14, average median download speeds fell to 59.9 Mbps, a 44.1% decline from baseline. The single worst day came on February 8, during Storm Marta, when median download speeds bottomed out at just 51.1 Mbps, a 52.4% decline. Upload speeds during this phase averaged just 9.5 Mbps, down 39.1% from baseline.
Latency and jitter, often overlooked but critical indicators of quality of experience (QoE) in interactive applications like video conferencing, told a similar story. Median latency during the sustained phase rose to 37 ms, a 10.5% increase over baseline, while jitter averaged 9 ms, up 21.6%. Elevated jitter in particular can reflect the instability characteristic of a network under duress, where routing paths shift unpredictably as infrastructure comes on and offline.
By mid-to-late February, partial recovery was underway. Median download speeds during the February 15 through February 23 period rose to 69.8 Mbps, still 34.9% below baseline but representing meaningful improvement. Upload speeds recovered to 11.0 Mbps (down 29.7%), while latency moderated to 36 ms (up 8.3%). Notably, jitter remained stubbornly elevated at 9 ms (up 21.6%), suggesting that while raw throughput was improving, network stability had not yet fully normalized.
Starlink as a Resilience Layer
As mobile network performance declined, Speedtest data reveals a striking and sustained surge in Starlink usage across Portugal, providing one of the clearest real-world illustrations of satellite connectivity functioning as a resilience layer during prolonged terrestrial disruption.
In the weeks before Storm Kristin, Starlink activity in Portugal was relatively stable. From January 28 onward, however, user activity began climbing sharply. During the acute phase from January 28 through January 31, Starlink user activity averaged 49.4% above baseline, peaking at 61.3% above on January 31 as the scale of mobile network disruption became apparent. This initial surge likely reflects both existing Starlink subscribers increasing their usage in response to degraded mobile and fixed service and new users activating service for the first time.
The sustained disruption phase from February 1 through February 14 saw Starlink activity more than double, averaging 118.4% above baseline. The single highest day came on February 12, when user activity reached approximately 196% above pre-storm levels. This coincided with the period of deepest mobile network degradation (and, likely, fixed network unavailability either due to localized power loss or line faults), providing strong evidence of a network substitution dynamic where some users turned to satellite connectivity as their primary or sole means of internet access.
Perhaps most notably, Starlink user activity did not recede even as mobile networks began their partial recovery. During the February 15 through February 23 period, Starlink activity averaged 151.0% above baseline, substantially higher than even the acute storm phase. This pattern suggests that for many users, the storm experience catalyzed a longer-term shift in connectivity behavior, with satellite maintained as either a primary or backup connection even after terrestrial alternatives began stabilizing.
Portuguese authorities also actively deployed Starlink as an emergency communications tool. Starlink equipment was distributed to remote areas where traditional telecommunications had been knocked offline, helping to bridge the connectivity gap in the hardest-hit communities. This mirrors the pattern observed during the April 2025 Iberian blackout, when Starlink remained operational across the peninsula by routing through ground stations in Italy as Spanish facilities went dark.
It is worth noting that Starlink speeds did moderate as user load increased. Average download speeds during the sustained phase fell to 163.5 Mbps, a 21.7% decline from the pre-storm Starlink baseline of 208.8 Mbps. However, even at their most congested, Starlink speeds remained materially higher than the degraded mobile network’s performance during the same period, delivering nearly three times the median download speed that mobile users were experiencing.
The Regulatory Gap and the Road to Resilience
The storm sequence reinforces a core resilience lesson: in prolonged extreme-weather events, telecom continuity is heavily shaped by power autonomy at sites, restoration logistics, and transport network redundancy, not only by RAN capacity. In practice, the biggest outages often reflect cross-sector interdependence between electricity, fibre transport and mobile access infrastructure.
Indeed, domestically, the storms have reignited debate around the resilience of Portugal’s telecom infrastructure, particularly the adequacy of backup power provisions at mobile sites. The finding that 40% of failures stemmed from power loss at mobile sites, rather than direct storm damage, points to a structural vulnerability that is within regulatory reach to address.
Portugal currently lacks binding requirements for specific minimum backup power autonomy levels at mobile sites. This stands in contrast to Nordic markets such as Norway and Finland, where regulators require between two and six hours of backup power at critical sites, alongside routine stress testing and contingency planning obligations.
In Norway, Nkom’s forsterket ekom programme is a state-backed resilience scheme that hardens selected sites in priority municipalities. Designated mobile sites must have at least 72 hours of backup power, the main transmission path must also have 72 hours, and a separate reserve transmission path is required. Switzerland has also recently codified a phased minimum backup approach. In January 2026, the Federal Council adopted an FDV revision requiring mobile operators to install emergency power at key sites and antennas so mobile service can be maintained for at least four hours from 2031 (with emergency calls covered first, and other services phased in later).
Within the EU, meanwhile, Brussels’ Electronic Communications Code (EECC) permits member states to mandate such provisions but does not require them. The Commission’s DNA proposal, adopted on 21 January 2026, is framed around investment and simplification, but it also directly elevates resilience by introducing an EU-level Preparedness Plan to address rising risks from natural disasters and foreign interference, and by embedding security and resilience criteria into the pan-EU satellite mechanism.
The resilience policy implications arising from this are important. The DNA gives the EU a stronger coordination spine for preparedness, but it does not remove the need for national regulators to set concrete, site-level resilience expectations (including backup-power minimums) that reflect local grid conditions and risk exposure.
On the operator side, Vodafone’s Enhanced Power initiative, launched in November 2025 with Portugal as a first deployment region, targets 10,000-plus mobile infrastructure sites across Europe with backup power provisions ranging from four hours at critical access sites to 72 hours at core mobile data centers. The initiative incorporates AI-based systems to predict and conserve backup power duration. Separately, Portugal’s government has announced a €400 (US$ 471) million investment package for grid resilience, including a 750 MW battery storage expansion.
The experience of January and February 2026 reinforces what the Storm Éowyn analysis across the UK and Ireland also demonstrated: that the resilience of mobile networks in extreme weather is fundamentally a function of power autonomy at mobile sites. Where terrestrial infrastructure falls short, satellite connectivity is increasingly proving its value, not as a replacement for mobile networks, but as a complementary layer of redundancy that can sustain connectivity when ground-based systems falter.
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.
Luke Kehoe leads Ookla’s research and thought leadership efforts in Europe.
An electronic engineering alumnus of University College Dublin, Luke has extensive experience collaborating with mobile operators, telecoms vendors, and government agencies in research and advisory roles across Europe. He has contributed to internationally recognised thought leadership publications in areas such as 5G, IoT, open RAN, and edge computing, working with prestigious organisations like the Telecom Infra Project and the World Economic Forum.
Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites – led by SpaceX’s Starlink – are upending the market for space-based internet services across virtually every corner of the globe.
The satellite internet industry – which traces its origins back at least three decades – is now in a period of rapid evolution. The development of LEO satellites, which orbit much closer to the Earth’s surface than traditional geostationary (GEO) satellites, has opened the door to services for consumers that are fast enough to support most modern digital activities, ranging from video conferencing to video gaming.
Starlink, the satellite internet constellation operated by rocket company SpaceX, has helped usher in this new reality. Launched commercially just five years ago, its rapid deployment of a massive LEO satellite network has quickly translated into market progress, allowing Starlink to capture a significant global customer base. It’s a powerful case study in disruptive innovation.
Ookla’s Speedtest Intelligence® data helps to capture the scope of this satellite market evolution and its effects on players around the world, as well as the scale of Starlink’s growth and the extent of its networking improvements.
Key takeaways:
Since 2019, SpaceX has launched a total of 10,790 Starlink satellites, helping it to gain a total of 9.2 million satellite internet customers. Starlink’s success in consumer-focused satellite internet services is clearly visible in Speedtest data. The company accounted for 97.1% of all global satellite Speedtest samples in the third quarter of 2025. Viasat came in a distant second with 1.7%. HughesNet was third globally with 1.0%.
Speedtest data also provides a view into where Starlink’s customers are located. The United States, Mexico, Indonesia, Brazil, and Canada are the company’s top five markets, according to Speedtest sample counts – with the U.S. accounting for more than one in five Starlink samples. As for network performance, Starlink median download and upload speeds have been rising in all of its major markets.
Starlink has also displayed clear improvements in its latency measurements in countries all over the globe. Starlink’s highest latency – 282 ms in the Marshall Islands in the third quarter of 2025 – was still less than half that of the fastest GEO satellite latency measurements.
In reaction to Starlink’s growth, a number of incumbent GEO satellite operators have engaged in mergers and acquisitions. Those providing services to consumers – including Viasat and HughesNet – deliver download speeds roughly three times slower than those of Starlink in most big markets. Meanwhile, new LEO satellite players like Amazon Leo are seeking to capture a share of the market.
The race to space
The story of satellite internet is rooted in the dawn of the Space Age. The development of powerful, multi-stage rockets – initially for military and later for space exploration purposes – paved the way for placing objects into Earth orbit. Following the launch of the Soviet Union’s Sputnik in 1957, the race to space culminated in the U.S. moon landing in 1969. These events helped set the stage for the deployment of the first communication satellites.
By the late 1990s and early 2000s, a handful of companies began leveraging satellite launch technology to offer internet access to consumers in areas unserved by telecom operators on the ground. Early pioneers, including WildBlue (later acquired by Viasat) and Hughes Network Systems (HughesNet), recognized the potential in using GEO satellites to connect the unconnected.
These early GEO systems were designed to cover wide swathes of the planet with a minimal number of satellites. However, such satellites must orbit at the same speed as the Earth’s rotation, in order to maintain their position. To do so, they have to sit 22,236 miles above the Earth’s surface. This distance between GEO satellites and Earthlings makes real-time applications, such as video conferencing and online gaming, challenging.
The GEO model dominated the satellite internet landscape for decades, mainly due to the steep costs involved with developing and launching satellites.
But things began to change roughly a decade ago. Unlike their GEO predecessors, LEO satellites orbit much closer to Earth, typically between 300 and 1,200 miles up. This speeds up connections – but it also means LEO satellite operators must launch lots of satellites. After all, at that orbit, a LEO satellite might complete a full circle around Earth in under two hours. Thus, keeping one specific location covered consistently requires multiple LEO satellites, each traveling over that location during a separate time period.
But before LEO satellites could disrupt the satellite internet market, first rockets needed to evolve.
Tracking the rise of Starlink
The ascent of Starlink’s service is directly linked to the cadence of SpaceX’s rocket launches, now almost daily. Those launches are the figurative and literal engine of Starlink’s global satellite internet expansion. Each successful launch – mainly using SpaceX’s reusable Falcon 9 rocket – adds dozens of new satellites to Starlink’s constellation, which now numbers almost 10,000 total active satellites. Each additional satellite creates more network capacity and coverage, thereby supporting Starlink’s growth and expansion.
As noted by Space.com, SpaceX launched 165 orbital flights in 2025, which accounted for 85% of the United States’ total tally. It’s also twice as many as China. Starlink’s satellites accounted for 123 of SpaceX’s 165 Falcon 9 launches.
This operational rhythm is the single greatest differentiator for Starlink. As noted in its 2025 annual report, Starlink activated more than 35 new markets in 2025 while gaining 4.6 million additional customers.
Starlink Satellite Launches and Customer Growth
Company reports | 2019 – 2025
Increases in Starlink’s satellites and customers are commensurate with growth in traffic on the company’s satellite internet network. According to Cloudflare, a global cloud infrastructure provider, Starlink’s network traffic volume grew 2.3x across 2025.
Starlink itself has been working to stay ahead of that traffic. According to the company’s 2025 report, its cumulative network capacity recently passed 600 Tbps.
All of this growth can be contrasted against some of the market’s foremost traditional GEO satellite operators like Eutelsat OneWeb, SES, Viasat, and EchoStar. None has a consumer-oriented internet business that measures up to Starlink.
For example, Viasat counts around 157,000 satellite internet subscribers in the U.S., down from around 228,000 a year ago. The company does not disclose the number of customers it has outside of the U.S. And HughesNet, owned by EchoStar, counts roughly 783,000 satellite internet customers globally. That too is down from the 912,000 it counted a year ago.
Indeed, according to PCMag, HughesNet is preparing to refer its own satellite internet customers to Starlink after its parent company, EchoStar, reached a deal to sell spectrum to SpaceX.
In general, Starlink’s GEO rivals are increasingly shifting away from residential, consumer-focused internet services and toward wholesale services for business customers like governments, airplane operators, and maritime companies. For example, in its most recent earnings report, SES said its aviation business now serves 3,000 airplanes. And Viasat announced a new deal with U.S. Space Force Space Systems Command.
But here too Starlink is providing competition: Starlink recently reported it provides connections to a total of 1,400 commercial aircraft and 150,000 boats, including cruise ships, tankers, and fishing vessels.
Regardless, Starlink’s success in the consumer-focused satellite internet business is clearly visible within Ookla Speedtest data. The company accounted for 97.1% of all global Speedtest samples in the third quarter of 2025. Viasat came in next with 1.7%. HughesNet was third globally with 1%.
Speedtest samples can also serve as a proxy for Starlink’s global operations, shining a light on where the company’s 9.2 million customers are located:
Starlink's Top 20 Markets
Speedtest Intelligence | Q3 2025
To be clear, these findings provide relative guidance and scale, but not exact customer figures. Just last week, a top Starlink official said the company now counts 1 million customers in Brazil, making it Starlink’s second-largest market.
Still, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the U.S. accounts for around one out of every five Starlink samples – SpaceX is based in the U.S., and the U.S. was among the first markets where it launched Starlink services. But concerns over Starlink’s growing satellite internet dominance are now pushing other countries to pursue their own sovereign satellite internet options.
Starlink speeds rise across top markets
The performance of Starlink’s network varies around the world. In the third quarter of 2025, a diverse selection of relatively small countries recorded the globe’s fastest aggregated median Starlink download speeds.
Country
Q3 2025 Median Download Speed (Mbps)
Date Starlink launched
Latvia
187.30
April 2022
Northern Mariana Islands
186.15
November 2020
New Zealand
185.37
April 2021
Azerbaijan
182.44
March 2025
Portugal
180.18
August 2021
A similarly diverse mix of smaller countries made up the five slowest Starlink markets.
Country
Q3 2025 Median Download Speed (Mbps)
Date Starlink launched
South Sudan
15.87
August 2024
Madagascar
23.64
June 2024
Liberia
26.74
January 2025
Svalbard and Jan Mayen
27.80
February 2025
Yemen
28.07
September 2024
None of these countries is geographically near each other, considering they span from the middle of the African continent to the Arctic Circle. Thus, Starlink’s speed variances could be due to a variety of other factors ranging from obstructions blocking users’ receivers, or rain interfering with Starlink’s satellite signals, to Starlink’s network management efforts, and the placement of users’ Wi-Fi routers in ways that slow connections.
In general, Starlink’s top five markets show less variation in terms of speeds. They also show a general rise in overall median download and upload speeds.
Starlink Median Download and Upload Speeds in Top Markets
Speedtest Intelligence | 2021-2025
To be clear though, these speeds are aggregated across the span of months. Because Starlink is a finite, shared resource, users’ network speeds can fluctuate on a daily – or even hourly – basis. This is simply due to the dynamic interplay between the company’s network capacity supply and users’ data demands. Speedtest data highlights this situation, showing speedier U.S. connections in the middle of the night, when few users are on the network:
In any case, Starlink’s networking speeds make it an increasingly competitive option when compared with many local providers, even in developed markets. Moreover, the company’s pricing has been falling even as its speeds have been rising. For example, in the U.K. Starlink’s new £35 ($47 USD) per month plan for 100 Mbps speeds is slightly less expensive than a similar offering from BT, when setup and other costs are spread out over two years, according to the financial analysts at New Street Research. It’s slightly more expensive than 100 Mbps fixed internet pricing from the likes of YouFibre and Vodafone.
Broadly, Starlink’s global reach is noteworthy in its scope and scale. Indeed, the company launched commercial services in two new countries – South Korea and São Tomé and Príncipe – in December 2025.
Starlink Global Median Download Speeds
Speedtest Intelligence | Q3 2025
Overall, Starlink today is available in more than 155 countries and markets.
A closer look at Starlink’s latency
Latency is the time between sending a request for internet data (clicking a link) and receiving a response (getting a web page). It’s typically measured in milliseconds (ms). High latency causes noticeable lag, making real-time applications like video calls and online gaming frustrating. Low latency provides a snappier, more immediate user experience. Fixed networks on the ground, like those running through fiber connections, typically provide latency of 10 ms or below. Mobile networks, like those using 5G, often achieve latency of 30-40 ms.
Latency in Starlink’s network is complicated by the fact that users’ connections must travel roughly 341 miles above the Earth’s surface, to where Starlink’s satellites orbit.
As the company noted last year, Starlink’s signals traveling at the speed of light usually require under 10 ms to make the round trip up from a user to a Starlink satellite and back down to a Starlink gateway site on the ground. Additional latency can be introduced by a variety of other factors, including the laser links between Starlink satellites that can route traffic around congestion. Another major factor is the geographic distance between a user and a Starlink gateway site, which directs users’ traffic onto the internet via a “point of presence,” or PoP. Each hop of this journey – including transmissions across the internet itself – can add latency to a user’s connection.
All of these factors – and more – are at play in the five Starlink markets showing the lowest latency in the third quarter of 2025: New Zealand, The Bahamas, Australia, Uruguay, and Kenya.
Broadly, Starlink continues to show latency improvements across the globe.
Interestingly, New Zealand has consistently ranked as the country with the lowest Starlink latency throughout 2025. That’s likely due to the multiple ground stations Starlink operates throughout the country, coupled with New Zealand’s relatively speedy, extensive, and robust fixed internet infrastructure.
But perhaps Kenya best illustrates the importance of nearby ground stations when it comes to Starlink’s latency. A number of East African countries saw a significant improvement in Starlink latency early this year, likely linked to the deployment of a new Starlink PoP in Nairobi in January 2025. Prior to that deployment, Starlink’s latency in Kenya was 289 ms. Afterward, it was just 53 ms.
“You can expect latency to continue to improve … as we prioritize software changes, build additional ground infrastructure, and launch more satellites,” Starlink wrote last year.
That focus could eventually lead the company to target the Marshall Islands, which showed the world’s highest Starlink latency measurements (282 ms) in the third quarter of 2025, according to Speedtest data. This sprawling oceanic nation comprises more than 1,000 islands and 29 coral atolls, and is located roughly halfway between Hawaii and Australia. Not surprisingly, it struggles to support speedy internet connections, and possibly as a result it does not appear to host a Starlink ground station. The nearest Starlink ground station to the Marshall Islands appears to be located in Fiji, roughly 1,800 miles away.
Here it’s worth noting that Starlink’s highest latency measurement in the third quarter of 2025 was still less than half the best latency measurement Speedtest recorded for any GEO satellite internet provider during that period. Specifically, GEO satellite operator Kacific – which provides internet connections across the Asia-Pacific – notched a latency measurement of 599 ms in the Philippines in the third quarter of 2025. This isn’t a surprise. GEO satellites orbit roughly 65 times farther away from their users than LEO satellites. This is the primary reason GEO satellite internet services have higher latency than LEO satellite services.
Nonetheless, Starlink isn’t the only satellite internet provider investing in ground infrastructure. SES, Globalstar and AST SpaceMobile are among those satellite operators that have constructed new ground-based infrastructure. And Amazon Leo officials have said the emerging LEO satellite operator will have around 300 ground stations – or double the estimated 150 ground stations supporting Starlink.
One final element in an analysis of Starlink’s operations involves the company’s network resiliency – Starlink argues that its network can also be used as a backup in the case of emergencies. For example, Starlink said that its satellites used their laser links to maintain connectivity during the April 2025 power outage in Spain and Portugal.
Ookla’s DownDetector shows a handful of Starlink outage reports in 2025, on a global basis.
A Starlink official acknowledged the July 24, 2025, outage was due to “failure of key internal software services that operate the core network.”
Evaluating the other satellite providers
The U.S. was by far Viasat’s top market in terms of Speedtest samples, accounting for 83% of results in the third quarter of 2025. Ukraine, Brazil, Italy, and Canada were Viasat’s other top markets.
The U.S. also notched the fastest median download speeds on Viasat’s network.
Viasat's Network Performance in its Top Markets
Speedtest Intelligence | Q3 2025
EchoStar’s HughesNet showed similar results. The U.S. accounted for 72% of the company’s Speedtest samples in the third quarter, and it also notched HughesNet’s fastest median download speeds at 46.31 Mbps. Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru rounded out the company’s top five markets.
Like Viasat, HughesNet generally showed latency between 600 and 800 ms across its network in the third quarter of 2025. In the U.S., the company’s biggest market, HughesNet’s latency hasn’t shown much change during the past two years:
HughesNet U.S. Latency Remains Steady
Speedtest Intelligence | Q3 2025
A handful of regional satellite operators also registered some results among Speedtest users. For example, Kacific saw samples in the Philippines, Australia, and Pakistan in the third quarter of 2025, with speeds and latency measurements similar to those of its fellow GEO satellite operators HughesNet and Viasat. Similarly, YahClick showed some samples in the United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, and South Africa, with performance similar to other GEO providers. YahClick is a Middle Eastern GEO satellite operator tied to Thuraya and Space42.
Latin American satellite operator Orbith also registered activity in Argentina and Mexico in the third quarter of 2025. However, its latency measurements in Mexico (38.66 ms) could reflect its efforts to add LEO satellite options alongside its existing GEO services. Orbith’s latency results in Mexico were decidedly different from the 734.17 ms latency it posted in Argentina.
Broadly, Starlink’s effect on the traditional GEO satellite market can be viewed through ongoing consolidation in the sector. For example, the combination of GEO satellite operator Eutelsat and OneWeb, an emerging LEO satellite player, was completed in September 2023. Another major combination – Viasat’s acquisition of Inmarsat – was finalized in May 2023. And the merger of SES and Intelsat closed in July 2025.
What to expect next
While Starlink dominates the market for consumer-focused LEO satellite internet services today, that may not always be the case. Amazon Leo (formerly Project Kuiper) has been steadily building out its own LEO satellite constellation, and it is currently testing services across its roughly 180 satellites. The company hopes to launch more satellites in the coming months and years – a necessity as it works to present competition to Starlink. Amazon Leo has promised speeds ranging from 100 Mbps to 1 Gbps, based on the type of receiver a customer uses.
Meanwhile, in China, Qianfan and Guowang are among those in the country planning LEO constellations that could span thousands of satellites. And in Canada, Telesat’s Lightspeed hopes to operate a few hundred LEO satellites, although Lightspeed will be sold to business customers rather than consumers.
The latest: Rocket company Blue Origin said its TeraWave satellite internet constellation will ultimately span more than 5,000 satellites, providing services up to 6 Tbps. The company said it will begin launching satellites toward the end of 2027.
Most such efforts are focused on connecting satellites to customers’ dedicated receivers. But a new dynamic in the sector – direct to device (D2D) – promises to expand the satellite internet market into smartphones. Here, companies like Lynk Global, AST SpaceMobile, Globalstar (partnered with Apple), and Starlink too are heavily investing into this evolving opportunity. According to surveysby Analysys Mason, up to 27% of respondents are willing to pay extra for these D2D services, thereby giving mobile network operators a 1% boost to their annual revenues.
However, all of these business models are contingent on satellite operators getting their satellites into orbit. Here Starlink is again the standout, considering its SpaceX parent is the world’s leading satellite launch provider. But others – including United Launch Alliance (ULA) and Blue Origin – are scaling up to meet demand.
Starlink, of course, is not standing still. The company said its new V3 satellites, set to launch during 2026, will provide 10 times the downlink and 24 times the uplink capacity of the company’s V2 satellites. And in support of those LEO satellite expansion plans, SpaceX continues to test its massive, reusable Starship rocket, which promises to deliver more satellites into orbit than any of SpaceX’s previous rockets.
This continuous, aggressive upgrade cycle underscores Starlink’s strategy to stay ahead of new market entrants by consistently increasing both the capacity and reliability of its global network. And that cycle could receive a major acceleration if SpaceX embarks on an initial public offering (IPO) during 2026.
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.
Mike Dano is a Lead Industry Analyst in Ookla’s research and content team. He covers the North and South American markets, and global technology trends. Previously, Mike was a journalist covering the global telecom industry for 25 years at publications including RCR Wireless News, Fierce Network and Light Reading.
Satellite broadband is playing a growing role in state connectivity plans as broadband offices confront the hardest and most expensive parts of the digital divide. Modern low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite networks have moved far beyond the limitations of legacy systems, delivering lower latency and higher speeds in places where fiber and fixed wireless remain impractical. As public funding increasingly supports satellite deployments in remote and high-cost areas, state policymakers face a new challenge: understanding how real-world satellite performance evolves over time, how much variability exists across locations and conditions, and what that means for long-term accountability.
State broadband programs are increasingly treating satellite connectivity as a complementary tool within layered broadband plans, particularly for BEAD-eligible locations where terrain, construction costs, or timelines make terrestrial deployment unrealistic. The expanded role of satellite connectivity shifts the focus from deployment milestones to ongoing performance. Performance expectations, compliance oversight, and accountability requirements depend on evidence that extends well beyond initial deployment.
In this article, we examine how LEO satellite performance changes as networks scale, why performance variability is an inherent part of satellite systems, and why continuous, independent measurement matters for publicly funded broadband programs. For a deeper look at LEO satellite performance metrics, policy considerations, and oversight best practices, download our white paper, Orbiting the Divide: How LEO Satellites Are Transforming State Broadband.
How LEO Satellite Performance Evolves Over Time
LEO satellite broadband does not behave like a static utility. Performance changes as constellations expand, ground infrastructure grows, and network software is refined. Early performance results provide valuable insight, but those same early results generally do not represent final outcomes. For state broadband offices, that distinction matters when evaluating funded deployments and setting long-term expectations.
Ookla® Speedtest Intelligence data illustrates how quickly real-world performance can improve as LEO networks scale. For example, between Q3 2022 and Q1 2025, U.S. Starlink median download speeds nearly doubled from 53.95 Mbps to 104.71 Mbps. More recent data indicates that these gains have continued as LEO networks expand. Speedtest Intelligence data shows that Starlink’s median U.S. fixed download speeds increased from approximately 78 Mbps in early 2024 to 128 Mbps by December 2025.
Starlink’s performance gains reflect continued network expansion rather than one-time upgrades. As satellites are added and traffic is distributed across a larger system, users can experience measurable improvements in speed and latency. Network operators also continue to refine routing, beam management, and capacity allocation, which further influences real-world results. Several factors drive these changes over time:
Constellation expansion: Additional satellites increase total capacity and reduce localized congestion, improving median speeds and consistency in high-demand areas.
Software and traffic optimization: Updates to routing logic and beam management improve efficiency without requiring changes to user equipment.
Ground infrastructure growth: New gateways and backhaul investments shorten data paths and reduce latency, particularly in remote regions.
Regional maturation: Areas that initially underperform can improve as satellite density and supporting infrastructure catch up with demand.
For state broadband programs, satellite performance should be treated as a moving target rather than a fixed benchmark. Early performance metrics provide useful context, but effective oversight requires tracking how performance changes as networks mature over time and as usage increases.
Performance Variability Is Built Into Satellite Networks
Performance variability is not a flaw in satellite broadband; it is a defining characteristic of how shared, space-based networks operate. Unlike terrestrial infrastructure, satellite performance depends on orbital dynamics, network load, geographic conditions, and environmental factors that change continuously. For policymakers, this reality complicates one-time testing and static performance assumptions.
Real-world satellite performance can differ meaningfully by location, time of day, and local demand. A household in a low-density rural area may experience higher speeds than a household closer to a dense population center during peak usage. Weather, foliage, terrain, and line-of-sight conditions can also affect outcomes, particularly in forested or mountainous regions. Several common factors contribute to this variability:
Network load: Concentrated demand in specific areas can temporarily reduce speeds during peak usage periods.
Geographic conditions: Terrain, vegetation, and elevation affect signal quality and consistency.
Environmental effects: Weather and seasonal changes can influence performance, especially in rural and heavily forested locations.
Local adoption patterns: Rapid increases in user density can introduce short-term congestion until capacity scales to match demand.
Performance variability makes satellite broadband difficult to evaluate through isolated tests or installation checks. Indeed, a single measurement captures a moment in time, not the range of conditions users experience. For publicly funded deployments, that limitation underscores the importance of ongoing, independent performance testing rather than one-time snapshots.
Why Satellite Performance Monitoring Matters for Public Funding Oversight
As broadband programs move from awarding grants to enforcing performance commitments, oversight requirements continue to expand. State broadband offices are increasingly responsible for long-term performance accountability—not just deployment progress. Traditional oversight tools such as construction verification and acceptance testing confirm that service exists, but they do not show whether service continues to meet required performance standards over time.
Satellite networks evolve continuously, and individual satellites have finite operational lifespans that require ongoing replacement and optimization. Environmental conditions and local demand also change throughout the life of a funded project. These realities raise important oversight questions for state broadband offices, including:
Compliance: Whether funded networks continue to meet required speed and latency thresholds over time.
Scaling: How performance changes as adoption increases and demand grows.
Risk signals: Where persistent underperformance may indicate capacity constraints or coverage gaps.
Performance comparisons: How satellite performance compares with terrestrial options across the same geographies and time periods.
Independent, third-party performance data provides a way to address these questions at scale. Large, crowdsourced datasets—like those provided by Ookla—capture real-world user experience across locations and over time, revealing trends that provider-reported metrics and one-time tests cannot. When analyzed consistently, this data supports establishing baselines, monitoring trends, and identifying performance risks early.
For publicly funded satellite deployments, continuous measurement is not a compliance burden. Rather, it’s the mechanism that protects public investment and ensures funded networks deliver durable, equitable service throughout their operational life.
Tying it all together
LEO satellite broadband now plays a meaningful role in state broadband strategies, particularly in areas where terrestrial deployment remains cost-prohibitive or impractical. Performance has improved significantly as constellations scale, but satellite networks remain dynamic systems with inherent variability that complicates one-time testing and fixed assumptions.
For state broadband offices, long-term success depends on understanding how satellite performance evolves, accounting for variability across locations and conditions, and maintaining independent visibility into real-world outcomes over time. Continuous performance monitoring provides the evidence needed to confirm compliance, identify emerging risks, and ensure public funding delivers lasting connectivity.
For a deeper look at real-world satellite performance data, policy frameworks, and oversight best practices, download our full white paper, Orbiting the Divide: How LEO Satellites Are Transforming State Broadband. The white paper includes additional performance charts, a look at speed and latency over time, performance differences across geographies, and real-world examples showing how congestion and demand can affect outcomes.
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.
Dave Andersen is a Marketing Program Manager at Ookla, where he creates enterprise and consumer content across Ookla’s brands. Dave got his start in the telco space in 2012, producing content for RootMetrics. Dave has a bachelors in marketing from Washington State University and studied creative writing in Oklahoma State’s MFA program.
Airlines are using in-flight connectivity to differentiate their service and create brand value
Just as hotels have progressively integrated Wi-Fi connectivity as a standard amenity for their guests, in-flight Wi-Fi is transitioning from a novelty to a convenience to an expected service.
Reflecting this increasing expectation, the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) this year incorporated “Quality of in-flight Wi-Fi” into its benchmarks for the airline industry. In-flight Wi-Fi placed 21st out of the 21 benchmarks, ranking lower than baggage handling, seat comfort, and even airline food.
To assess this performance, we analyzed our Speedtest data collected during Q1 2025. We examined performance for individual airlines and for in-flight connectivity service providers.
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
In-flight Wi-Fi for the majority of users compares very poorly with their experience on terrestrial networks
Hawaiian Airlines and Qatar Airways stand out as the best performing airlines based on our data
Starlink’s low-earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellation drives performance for leading airline Wi-Fi
Expect airlines to ramp up their efforts — in-flight connectivity can be a key point of differentiation for travelers, helps support the premium brand value that many international airlines aspire to create, and is an opportunity to monetize a literally captive audience
In-flight Wi-Fi Speed and Latency Performance by Airline
Speedtest data, Q1 2025, airlines sorted by median
Hawaiian Airlines and Qatar Airways use Starlink’s low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellation to deliver their inflight Wi-Fi, resulting in download speeds and upload speeds and latency that are better than the other airlines.
Many other airlines are also providing very usable speeds. Spirit Airlines, Air Canada, Delta Airlines, Breeze Airlines, American Airlines and Aeromexico all provide 10th percentile (where 90% of the results are faster) download speeds above 10 megabits per second (Mbps) and very respectable median download speeds. Furthermore, upload speeds on most of these airlines tend to support basic uplink connectivity needs like emailing. However, when the upload speed is observed alongside the many high-latency results, real-time uses like gaming or video calling are likely not possible (to the relief of all other passengers).
Lufthansa, at the other end of the download speed ranking, is limited by the Deutsche Telekom LTE ground-to-air network. While Lufthansa may offer other connectivity options, our data shows a significant number of its passengers are still connecting via this poorer-performing service.
Likewise, given the premium brand reputation of carriers like Japan Airlines, Turkish Airlines, and Cathay Pacific, they likely offer better-performing connectivity services on other aircraft. However, as with Lufthansa, our data reveals that a notable portion of their passengers are still encountering a substandard Wi-Fi experience.
Qatar Airways presents additional insight as, along with Starlink as one of its connectivity service providers, it also operates planes with geo-stationary orbit GEO connectivity. This is most evident in the multiserver latency results. While Qatar’s median latency is similar to Hawaiian Airlines, its 10th percentile (the laggiest experience) is much higher, keeping it in the company of other GEO-supported airlines.
Connectivity Service Providers
In our Speedtest samples of in-flight connectivity service providers we collect a mix of GEO, LEO, medium earth orbit (MEO), multi-orbit / hybrid network providers, and even ground-based LTE. Furthermore, the category includes satellite service integrators. These integrators do not own or operate their own satellite constellations. Instead they partner with satellite operators for capacity while managing the business relationship with the airline, including installing and managing the in-flight connectivity system on the aircraft.
In-flight Connectivity Service Providers and Associated Airlines
Deutsche Telekom
Air France, Cathay Pacific, Condor, Lufthansa
Hughes (SES)
Spirit Airlines
Inmarsat (Viasat)
Air New Zealand, Qatar Airways
Intelsat
Air Canada, Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, United Airlines
MTN Satellite Communications
Southwest Airlines
Nelco (PAC/Intelsat)
Air India
Panasonic Avionics Corporation
Aer Lingus, Air France, American Airlines, ANA, Asiana Airlines, British Airways, Etihad Airways, EVA Air, Fiji Airways, Finnair, Iberia Airlines, ITA Airways, Japan Airlines, KLM, Korean Air, Malaysian Airlines, Scandinavian Airlines, Singapore Airlines, SWISS Airlines, TAP Air Portugal, Thai Airlines, United Airlines, Virgin Atlantic, VoeAzul, WestJet, Zipair Tokyo
SITA Switzerland
Qatar Airways
SpaceX Starlink
Hawaiian Airlines, Qatar Airways
Türk Telekom
Turkish Airlines
Viasat
Aeromexico, American Airlines, Breeze Airlines, Delta Airlines, EL AL Airlines, Icelandair, JetBlue, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines, Virgin Atlantic
* Based on Speedtest data samples, Q1 2025; not based on active or announced partnerships
Deutsche Telekom is in the European Aviation Network, a hybrid network that combines a GEO satellite from Viasat/Inmarsat with a ground-based LTE network across Europe.
Hughes, an EchoStar company, provides GEO satellite internet for consumers and enterprises. In late 2022 it began offering “Hughes Fusion,” a multi-orbit in-flight connectivity solution that can simultaneously communicate with both GEO and LEO satellites. Hughes frequently collaborates with European satellite operator SES, a GEO and MEO provider.
Intelsat provides in-flight connectivity through its fleet of GEO satellites and offers a multi-orbit solution that combines its GEO network with access to a LEO constellation. Intelsat is in the process of being acquired by SES.
MTN Satellite Communications, primarily known for its services in the maritime and remote land-based sectors, also provides in-flight connectivity. The company leverages capacity from various satellite operators across different orbits, both GEO and LEO.
Nelco, a Tata Group enterprise, has partnered with Intelsat to offer its GEO-based connectivity services to airlines operating in Indian airspace.
Panasonic Avionics Corporation (PAC) – a provider of in-flight entertainment and connectivity systems, does not operate its own satellite constellation. Instead, it partners with various satellite operators, including those with GEO and LEO networks (eg, EutelsatOneWeb), to offer multi-orbit connectivity service to airline customers.
SITA Switzerland, a multinational information technology company, partners with satellite network operators, to deliver passenger broadband.
SpaceX Starlink is rapidly expanding its LEO satellite network, offering high-speed, low-latency internet service to airlines, and is being adopted by several carriers.
Türk Telekom has been providing in-flight connectivity through partnerships including Panasonic Avionics.
Viasat operates a constellation of high-capacity GEO satellites. Its services are used by numerous airlines globally. Viasat acquired Inmarsat, another GEO satellite network, in May 2023.
In-flight Wi-Fi Speed and Latency Performance by Connectivity Service Provider
Speedtest data, Q1 2025, provider sorted by median
The advantages of its dense LEO constellation compared to the GEOs make SpaceX’s Starlink the clear standout in speeds and latency. Its medians are 152.37 Mbps download speed, 24.16 Mbps upload speed, and 44 milliseconds (ms) multi-server latency.
Hughes and Intelsat, with their multi-orbit offering, deliver solid median download speeds – 84.55 Mbps and 61.61 Mbps, respectively. Viasat performs well on download speed, too, at 50.38 Mbps, given it is a GEO provider.
On the other end of the scale, the LTE ground network of Deutsche Telekom delivers a minimally usable median download speed of 4.14 Mbps. Passengers on these flights may have access to GEO services (which, for example, we see in our data with Air France, though not in sufficient sample size to include in this article), but, as stated above, given we record Speedtest samples on Deutsche Telekom means that passengers are connecting with very slow internet speeds.
Looking more closely at slower download speeds, the 10th percentile reveals a similar pattern to the median, with Starlink still performing well at 65.31 Mbps, and Hughes and Viasat still managing usable download speeds of 28.29 Mbps and 12.78 Mbps, respectively. The rest of the provider speeds tail off and down into the single-digit Mbps, and raises a question: is it the satellite constellation capacity or the onboard Wi-Fi technology (or both) that is the limiting factor? The question of onboard Wi-Fi technology is taken up in the conclusion to this research article.
Examining the uplink, besides Starlink at 24.16 Mbps, only Intelsat provides adequate median upload speeds at 9.96 Mbps. Next, Panasonic Avionics, Turk Telekom (also PAC) and Nelco (also PAC) neatly cluster – 3.65, 3.40 and 2.60 Mbps, respectively – followed by Deutsche Telekom at 2.53 Mbps.
Latency is the starkest separation between LEO and GEO, which is obvious given the orbital altitude differences in distance between them is roughly 60 times or more. Bearing this in mind, Starlink’s median multiserver latency of 44 ms would otherwise seem an outlier compared with all other providers, ranging from 667 ms to 839 ms.
Nowhere to go but up
In-flight connectivity isn’t seamless. Depending on airline routes or models of airplanes, different connectivity service providers may be used (or occasionally restricted by governments when crossing over certain territories). Moreover, old equipment on and in the airplanes takes time and expense to upgrade.
However, the upgrades are happening as many airlines see value and opportunity to provide extended services, along with better Wi-FI. For example, United Airlines is not just moving its entire fleet to Starlink for better performance, but also to deepen its customer loyalty relationships. “Access will be free for all MileagePlus customers and includes game-changing inflight entertainment experiences like streaming services, shopping, gaming and more.” SAS is also working with Starlink to enhance its “gate-to-gate” connectivity and offer free high-speed Wi-Fi by the end of this year.
Not all airlines are selecting Starlink. Also announced this year, American Airlines has aligned itself with Viasat and Intelsat, while Delta has gotten on board with Viasat and Hughes, deplaning Intelsat.
Another example of improvement, this time inside the airplane, is Panasonic Avionics offering Wi-Fi 6E. Wi-Fi 6E adds the 6 GHz frequency band to prior Wi-Fi generations (that offered 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz), which has more channels and less interference than older Wi-Fi devices.
Finally, competition is heating up. The likes of Project Kuiper and, perhaps, AST SpaceMobile will add new LEO options, where we see the leading LEO Starlink performing very well in our Speedtest data. Intention to provide “direct-to-device” connectivity to wireless customers from the mobile network operators, helps support the scale of the capital-intensive business case for launching rockets and orbiting satellites.
Watch this space
We will be revisiting this topic soon with updated information and insights. If you are an airline or an in-flight connectivity service provider, we’d like to hear from you to ensure we’re capturing and reflecting your passengers’ Wi-Fi connection experience.
Ookla assists ISPs, venue owners, and companies in designing Wi-Fi networks, monitoring their performance, and optimizing them. Please contact us to learn more about Speedtest Intelligence and Ekahau.
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.
Kerry Baker leads Ookla's research and content efforts in North America. He has over 20 years experience in the telecom industry, primarily at T-Mobile studying network performance benchmarking and customer experience. Kerry also has founder’s experience with four technology-related startups. Kerry holds masters degrees from the University of Washington in Business and International Political Economics.
Speedtest data highlights the early usage of T-Mobile’s T-Satellite service, which works on most new iOS and Android smartphones released in the past 2-4 years. The service is available to T-Mobile customers as well as customers of AT&T, Verizon and other providers.
Editor’s note: This article was updated on October 17 to include information about devices connecting to Starlink that also registered as having active service.
T-Mobile first announced its satellite plans with partner SpaceX in August 2022, just before Apple unveiled its own satellite partnership with Globalstar. Fast forward to 2025 and T-Mobile officially launched its satellite texting service with SpaceX on July 23.
Now, Ookla Speedtest® data provides a look at the early usage of T-Mobile’s T-Satellite service across T-Mobile, AT&T, Verizon and FirstNet users. (FirstNet is for public-safety customers and runs over AT&T’s network.) The below data is derived from Android smartphones that registered with SpaceX Starlink satellites at some point between December 2024 and September 2025.
Key Takeaways:
T-Mobile customers accounted for roughly 60% of all connections. When only counting devices that reported having active service at the time of their Starlink connection, that figure rose to 70.8%.
Los Angeles County, California, was the country’s most popular location for T-Satellite activity. This massive county contains both the city of Los Angeles and Angeles National Forest, an area known for its rugged mountains, steep canyons and extensive trail systems. It’s also where T-Mobile deployed free T-Satellite text messaging services in the early days of 2025, amid multiple wildfires.
The median download and upload speeds of Starlink’s fixed internet service showed no signs of degradation amid the testing and launch of T-Mobile’s T-Satellite service this year. That’s likely due to the fact that Starlink’s smartphone-capable satellites are different from those supporting its fixed internet service.
T-Satellite Rockets into the Commercial Marketplace
Direct to device (D2D) technology connects smartphones directly to satellites for text messaging and other services, primarily in outdoor, rural areas where no other connections exist. Those satellites are hundreds of miles above the Earth, traveling thousands of miles an hour. Thus, such phone-to-satellite connections represent an impressive technological feat considering standard, terrestrial cellular networks connect smartphones to stationary cell towers that are on the ground, usually just a few miles away.
Apple, via Globalstar’s satellites and spectrum holdings, pioneered the D2D market. Every iPhone since the iPhone 14, introduced in 2022, can send and receive text messages through these satellites. In September, Apple expanded D2D into its lineup of smartwatches.
But Apple isn’t the only D2D player to achieve liftoff.
T-Mobile first unveiled its satellite ambitions in 2022, via a public press conference featuring outgoing T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert and SpaceX’s Elon Musk. The companies promised a service that could connect smartphones directly to SpaceX’s Starlink satellites via a sliver of T-Mobile’s licensed spectrum holdings. Unlike Apple and Globalstar’s offering, this setup doesn’t require users to purchase a new phone.
SpaceX began launching satellites in support of its D2D service starting in early 2024.
Then, in February of 2025, T-Mobile launched a beta test of its SpaceX-powered T-Satellite text messaging service, complete with a high-profile Super Bowl advertisement. Importantly, T-Mobile offered the beta service for free, for three months, to its own customers as well as customers of its rivals, AT&T and Verizon. T-Mobile said it gradually added users to the service as part of its testing efforts, eventually gaining 2 million signups for the beta and 30,000 daily users, including “hundreds of thousands” of customers from AT&T and Verizon.
Finally, T-Mobile commercially launched its T-Satellite messaging service in July 2025, with around 650 Starlink satellites. The offering is now available at no extra cost to T-Mobile customers on the operator’s Experience Beyond plan (which starts at $100 per month). For other customers – including T-Mobile customers on other plans, as well as those of AT&T and Verizon – it’s available for an extra $10 per month. Non-T-Mobile customers can access the service via an eSIM.
Ookla Speedtest data captured throughout 2025 shows growing interest in T-Satellite:
Weekly Count of Devices Connected to Starlink D2D
From Speedtest data, December 2024 – September 2025
This is a chart that shows the growth of T-Mobile's T-Satellite.
As of September 2025, T-Mobile customers remained the biggest group of users connecting to SpaceX’s D2D satellites. But AT&T customers also show links to those satellites:
Percent share of Starlink D2D Device Connections, Active and Non Active Devices
From Speedtest data, December 2024 – September 2025
This is a chart that shows Starlink D2D Device connections. AT&T: 34%. T-Mobile: 60.9%
However, when only counting the Android devices that reported having active service (rather than counting both devices with active service as well as devices without) the figures are a bit different:
Percent share of Starlink D2D Connections on Devices with Active Service
From Speedtest data, December 2024 – October 2025
This fluctuation may simply be due to the fact that D2D is a relatively new technology and therefore device settings may vary depending on the gadget’s make, model, and operator settings.
Also, it’s possible that Verizon customers aren’t showing as much interest in T-Satellite because of Verizon’s 2024 agreement with Skylo. Skylo doesn’t operate its own satellites, but it does purchase connectivity from those that do, including Viasat, Ligado Networks, TerreStar and EchoStar.
Verizon began offering Skylo-powered text messaging in emergency situations in January 2025 on Samsung Galaxy S25 series smartphones. Since then it has added support for newer Google Pixel phones, and it expanded the service into regular, nonemergency situations.
AT&T, meanwhile, has an agreement with satellite operator AST SpaceMobile. That company hopes to begin offering intermittent satellite connections to AT&T and Verizon customers starting later this year. AST SpaceMobile has promised more continuous service in 2026 as it adds more satellites to its planned constellation.
National Forests and National Parks are Top Locations for D2D Users
This interactive map displays the locations where Speedtest data showed a Starlink D2D connection over the course of 2025:
And here is a list of the top five U.S. counties by total D2D device connections over the course of 2025:
Los Angeles County, California
Larimer County, Colorado
Teton County, Wyoming
Mohave County, Arizona
Mineral County, Montana
That Los Angeles County is the most popular location for T-Satellite D2D connections is interesting. Although the city of Los Angeles sits in the southern portion of Los Angeles County, California, the Angeles National Forest sits in the northern part. This remote area contains several wilderness zones, including the Cucamonga Wilderness, Magic Mountain Wilderness, and Pleasant View Ridge Wilderness, as well as a portion of the Pacific Crest Trail.
Cellular coverage throughout the northern portion of Los Angeles County is poor or nonexistant:
Los Angeles County has also been the scene of several major wildfires this year, including the Palisades and Eaton Fires in January 2025. In one of its first public D2D forays, T-Mobile delivered free Starlink D2D messaging to 198,000 users in areas affected by those January wildfires.
Other top D2D locations in the U.S. feature geographic characteristics similar to that of Los Angeles County. For example, Larimer County, Colorado, is located in the northern part of the state and contains parts of Rocky Mountain National Park and Roosevelt National Forest. Similarly, Teton County, Wyoming, is the home of Grand Teton National Park and a significant portion of Yellowstone National Park. And Mohave County, Arizona, includes parts of Grand Canyon National Park, Lake Mead National Recreation Area and the Mojave Desert. All of these areas sport at least some cellular dead zones.
D2D Connections are Relatively Rare
National forests and national parks are vacation destinations, visited occasionally. Based on Ookla Speedtest data, U.S. users are in reach of a cellular network the vast majority of the time.
Percent Time Spent Without Service
From Speedtest data, Full-Year 2024
This is a chart that shows percewnt time spent without service. AT&T T-Mobile and Verizon it's about 62% on Verizon for 4G, 27% for T-Mobile. For 5G it's 34% for Verizon and 69% for T-Mobile and 60% for AT&T. And it's like 2% for time spent with no service.
This data reflects the fact that homes, offices, coffee shops, schools and other familiar locations – in cities and towns with cellular coverage – are where most users spend the bulk of their time. It also highlights the impressive coverage provided by the 651,000 cell sites around the U.S. These sites – from massive cell towers to small cells atop light posts – cover most populated areas (while Wi-Fi covers most indoor locations).
The 2.79% of the time when the average U.S. user isn’t connected to a cellular network is where the D2D market can play. Clearly, 2.79% is a relatively small slice of time, but it may also represent the hours when an internet connection might be the most useful. Whether it’s a flat tire in the middle of nowhere or a broken ankle on a mountainside, users may place a value on a D2D satellite connection far in excess of the time they actually spend on it.
For example, in a recent survey of around 1,000 smartphone users, the financial analysts at TD Cowen found that more than 60% would pay at least $5 per month for some kind of satellite D2D service. That’s worth an additional $3 billion in additional annualized revenue for the U.S. wireless industry.
This is why so many companies are investing into the D2D industry. Lynk Global, AST SpaceMobile, Viasat and Iridium are among the companies planning or building satellite constellations for D2D services. Others, like Amazon’s Kuiper, may add D2D capabilities to their satellites at a later date.
That said, D2D market leaders aren’t standing still. SpaceX recently inked a $17 billion deal to acquire spectrum from EchoStar to help expand its D2D service beyond text messaging. And Apple is plowing $1.7 billion into its satellite partner Globalstar for the construction of a new satellite constellation with as-yet-unannounced capabilities.
SpaceX may have Big Plans for Starlink and D2D
SpaceX has been using its rocket-launching business to build out its Starlink satellite internet constellation, which now stretches across 8,000 satellites and roughly 7 million global fixed internet customers. SpaceX’s rockets add satellites to Starlink’s constellation on an almost daily basis.
However, Starlink’s D2D satellites are separate and apart from those dedicated to the company’s fixed internet business (although both types of satellites share the same backhaul links). This is why Starlink’s fixed internet speeds in the U.S. haven’t been affected by the testing and launch of T-Mobile’s T-Satellite service.
Starlink's U.S. Fixed Internet Monthly Performance
Speedtest Intelligence, January 2024 – August 2025
This is a chart that shows the growth in speeds of Starlink fixed internet. It was like 129 Mbps in August 2025.
This is important because SpaceX has so far received $478 million in grants from the U.S. government’s Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program. That money is intended to bring fixed internet connections to almost 300,000 rural locations across the U.S.
Starlink’s D2D business currently runs over about 650 satellites. When those satellites orbit beyond the borders of the U.S., they’re used by other cellular operators in Starlink’s Direct to Cell program including Rogers (Canada), Optus (Australia), Telstra (Australia), KDDI (Japan), Entel (Chile & Peru) and Kyivstar (Ukraine). The service has proven so popular that New Zealand mobile operator One has reportedly expanded the amount of licensed spectrum it will run through Starlink’s satellites from 5 MHz to 15 MHz. And Starlink recently claimed 7 million D2D users globally.
But satellite-powered text messaging isn’t the end of Starlink’s D2D ambitions. Already T-Mobile and other Starlink partners are beginning to deploy some early data services. For T-Satellite users, those data services are restricted to select smartphone apps including AccuWeather, AllTrails, Google Maps, Google Messages, onX Backcountry, WhatsApp, X and Apple apps like Maps, Messages and Music. And T-Mobile is working to temper early users’ expectations.
“Satellite connections aren’t always instant – because satellites move overhead, your phone may need a moment to find one,” T-Mobile warns. “If you don’t see signal right away, just give it a little time and try again. This isn’t high speed data, but it’s built for what matters most off grid.”
SpaceX is working to speed things up. With the $17 billion in spectrum it purchased from EchoStar, SpaceX says it expects to ultimately provide D2D data speeds generally comparable to those on 4G LTE networks. According to Ookla Speedtest Intelligence, 4G operators in the U.S. provided 33 Mbps median download speeds and 4 Mbps median upload speeds in 2024.
SpaceX has already asked the FCC for permission to launch as many as 15,000 D2D satellites in pursuit of this objective. The company must also work with phone vendors to ensure its new spectrum licenses are supported in future phones.
Should existing cellular operators worry about all this? Maybe, according to SpaceX’s Elon Musk. When asked whether Starlink could become a global phone carrier in the future, “that would be one of the options,” Musk replied. But he added that “we’re not going to put the other carriers out of business. They’re still going to be around because they own a lot of spectrum. But yes, you should be able to have Starlink like you have an AT&T, or T-Mobile, or Verizon or whatever.”
When asked the same question in a different venue, SpaceX’s Gwynne Shotwell was a little more circumspect: “We will be initiating discussions with telcos in a different way now,” she said. “It’s our spectrum, but we want to work with them, almost providing wholesale capacity to their customers. We have to work with the device manufacturers, the chip companies, and working with telcos on the end game. It’s really exciting, but it’s a huge amount of work.”
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.
Mike Dano is a Lead Industry Analyst in Ookla’s research and content team. He covers the North and South American markets, and global technology trends. Previously, Mike was a journalist covering the global telecom industry for 25 years at publications including RCR Wireless News, Fierce Network and Light Reading.
Ookla® is back with exciting, fresh data from Q3 and Q4 2022 for SpaceX’s Starlink and Sky Logic in Europe and Oceania, as well as new Starlink markets we haven’t yet featured in our ongoing series on satellite internet. With the FCC greenlighting Amazon’s Project Kuiper and many other exciting satellite developments launching this year, we’re certain all eyes will be on the sky in 2023 as new orbital connectivity options become available for consumers.
This analysis includes Starlink results from six new countries, and data for Starlink and Sky Logic in Europe and Starlink in Oceania. We also examine how Starlink’s internet performance has changed over the past year in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Croatia, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, and the United Kingdom.
Starlink is mostly speeding up again from Q3 to Q4 2022, but is still slower than a year ago
As Starlink rides the wave of becoming an increasingly popular connectivity option for consumers, we’ve seen the service speed up and then slow down year-over-year in most markets. However, Q4 2022 data shows many countries are experiencing a modest rise in median download speeds when compared to Q3 2022. That’s encouraging for consumers, especially as Starlink hit over 1 million users in Q4 2022, and could be a sign that Starlink seems to be maturing its constellation’s capacity. That’s particularly intriguing as Starlink launches more next-gen satellites, which were first deployed at the tail end of Q4 2022 and will most likely show up in Q1 2023 results.
In Europe, all the countries we evaluated for year-over-year median download speeds were slower for Q4 2022 than Q4 2021 when there were fewer users on each network. Most countries showed between 10-20% slower speeds in Q4 2022 than what users experienced in Q4 2021, including Ireland (at least 11% slower), Austria (at least 13%), Portugal (at least 14%), Italy (at least 15%), Germany (at least 16%), and the U.K. (at least 19%). Users in France saw very similar speeds year over year, with just a 4% decrease from Q4 2021 to Q4 2022, while users in Poland saw a large decrease (at least 56% slower), and users in the Netherlands (at least 21%) and Belgium (at least 28%) saw substantial decrease during the same period.
In Oceania, Starlink year-over-year results were mixed, with Starlink’s download speed in Australia 24% slower in Q4 2022 than during Q4 2021, while in New Zealand it was 4% faster in Q4 2022 than Q4 2021.
Starlink in Denmark and Switzerland had the fastest satellite internet in Europe during Q4 2022
Speedtest Intelligence® reveals there was no fastest satellite provider in Europe during Q4 2022, though Starlink in Denmark (147.52 Mbps) and Switzerland (136.03 Mbps) led the pack for fastest median download speed. In all, Starlink download speeds were faster than 100 Mbps in 10 out of 15 European countries during Q4 2022 — a rise from just five out 15 in Q3 2022.
Starlink outperformed fixed broadband providers over download speed in eight countries, including: Austria (105.67 Mbps), Belgium (104.84 Mbps), Croatia (102.99 Mbps), Czechia (64.67 Mbps), Germany (94.37 Mbps), Ireland (103.39 Mbps), Italy (101.06 Mbps), and the U.K. (96.79 Mbps). Fixed broadband providers were faster than satellite providers analyzed in Denmark, France, Netherlands, and Poland. Results were too close to call in Sweden with fixed providers at 106.73 Mbps and Starlink at 101.83 Mbps, as well as Portugal with Starlink at 108.02 Mbps and fixed broadband at 117.97 Mbps. Skylogic was too close to call between the median fixed broadband speed in Italy at 55.50 Mbps to 59.40 Mbps, and had download speeds faster than 40 Mbps in France (44.46 Mbps) and Sweden (48.09 Mbps).
For upload speeds, every country’s combined fixed broadband providers had faster median upload speeds than every satellite provider, though Starlink in Portugal had the fastest upload speed among satellite providers at 20.86 Mbps. All Starlink upload speeds ranged between 10-20 Mbps except Poland (9.79 Mbps) and Denmark (8.04 Mbps).
Multi-server latency for all satellite providers was higher than fixed broadband providers in every European country in Q4 2022, which ranged from 12.34 ms in Sweden to 23.46 ms in Italy. However, Starlink had a median multiserver latencies of less than 60 ms in the U.K. (53.24 ms), Portugal (56.81 ms), and the Netherlands (58.85 ms). Most latencies were between 60-75 ms, with Poland having the highest latency at 86.46 ms — still low enough to have a good quality of experience and be able to video chat.
Starlink in New Zealand was the fastest satellite provider in Oceania
During Q4 2022, Starlink in New Zealand had the fastest median download speed among satellite providers in Oceania at 124.72 Mbps, followed by Starlink in Australia (106.43 Mbps), and Starlink in Tonga (35.15 Mbps). However, New Zealand fixed broadband outperformed Starlink, while Starlink in Australia outperformed fixed broadband providers. In Tonga, speeds were too close to call.
Speedtest Intelligence shows Starlink falling behind fixed broadband providers for median upload speeds in New Zealand (16.89 Mbps) and Australia (11.38 Mbps), while Tonga was again too close to call.
Multi-server latency was higher over Starlink than fixed broadband in all three countries we surveyed in Oceania during Q4 2022. However, Starlink’s median latency was under 50 ms in New Zealand (48.11 ms), which is a very exciting development for consumers, especially with latency becoming an increasingly important metric. Starlink latency in Australia was higher at 65.52 ms, while Tonga followed at 88.81 ms.
New Q4 2022 Starlink countries show very promising results
Speedtest Intelligence shows the six new countries where we found new Starlink data are off to a roaring start in Q4 2022, which include Bulgaria, Finland, Jamaica, Japan, Latvia, and Malta. Starlink had faster median download speeds than the country’s respective fixed broadband providers combined in two countries: Bulgaria (110.76 Mbps versus 65.69 Mbps), and Jamaica (87.43 Mbps vs. 48.34 Mbps), while results were too close to call in the remaining four markets. However, Starlink showed promising 100+ Mbps speeds in Japan (156.94 Mbps), Finland (102.70 Mbps), and Malta (101.36 Mbps).
Median upload speeds for Starlink lagged behind fixed broadband providers in all markets, though Malta was too close to call (20.40 Mbps for Starlink and 20.25 Mbps for fixed broadband). Starlink upload speeds ranged from about 14 Mbps to 20 Mbps in every market.
Consumers and enterprises stand to benefit from satellite developments in 2023
Starlink dominated headlines in 2022 — and for good reason. They’ve gained over 1 million users worldwide, will be available in connected vehicles, planes, RVs, and ships, partnered with T-Mobile to bring Starlink to mobile devices, and launched their second-gen satellites at the end of 2022. But that could very seriously change in 2023 with multiple competitors deploying major offensives in the satellite market. We’ll say it again: there is a new space race for connectivity being waged, and we’re just at the tip of what’s to come.
Here are some major updates about what’s next for various different satellite competitors:
Amazon’s Project Kuiper approved by the FCC
The biggest news concerning satellite connectivity is the FCC approving Amazon’s Project Kuiper constellation, which will include 3,236 satellites in an LEO array. On two fronts, this poses two potential challenges for Starlink: on one hand, Amazon has the global reach, scale, and consumer base that being one of the largest companies in the world provides. On the other, Blue Origin is a direct competitor of SpaceX, and won’t have to rely on the service or other vendors to launch their array into space. Amazon is in a good position to compete and Project Kuiper could become a major player if their prototypes, which will be launched in early 2023, reach speeds anywhere close to competing with broadband internet.
Viasat set to launch Viasat-3 arrays around April 8, 2023
Long-term incumbent satellite internet provider, Viasat, has a big year ahead after years of planning and providing connectivity to remote locations around the world. Viasat is finally set to launch its Viasat-3 array, which aims to provide 1 Terabit per second (Tbps) of network capacity on each satellite, allowing its users to experience 100+ Mbps connections; that’s a huge improvement for the mainly GEO provider. While consumers likely won’t see these results until Q4 2023, we’re very excited to see how Viasat improves its network.
Eutelsat’s merger with OneWeb approved by Eutelsat board, second-gen array being planned
One of the biggest mergers in recent years among satellite providers has jumped a major hurdle and was approved by the Eutelsat board. While the combined entities still have to be approved by shareholders and regulators, this merger could expand both companies’ market share, particularly in India, which has fast become an important satellite market. Furthermore, OneWeb is already planning a second-gen satellite, which they’re aiming to launch in 2025.
European Commission forges ahead on Constellation Iris
HughesNet aiming to launch Jupiter 3 array in H1 2023
Incumbent satellite internet provider HughesNet is planning to launch its new Jupiter 3 array in the first half of 2023, which will help expand its network capacity, “doubling the size of the Hughes JUPITER fleet over North and South America.” While the Jupiter 3 array will still be a GEO constellation, the added network capacity will alleviate congested networks and give consumers more bandwidth to use the internet.
Ookla will continue monitoring new satellite internet developments
As 2023 continues to shape up as a pivotal year for satellite internet providers, we’ll be watching the sky to make sure providers are providing the connectivity consumers need. We’ll continue our series next quarter with Q4 2022 and Q1 2023 data from North and South America and any new countries where Starlink launches, and be back with Europe and Oceania data in Q3 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.
The satellite internet race is heating up, with more competitors serving more areas than even a quarter ago. We’re back with a broader look at internet network performance for satellite providers across the globe based on Q2 2021 data from Speedtest Intelligence™.
Starlink speeds beat competitors in the U.S., can’t top fixed broadband
Given that satellite internet is often the only solution for folks with little to no fixed broadband access, the Speedtest® results we saw coming from HughesNet, Starlink and Viasat during Q2 2021 were encouraging. However, Starlink was the only satellite internet provider in the United States with fixed-broadband-like latency figures, and median download speeds fast enough to handle most of the needs of modern online life at 97.23 Mbps during Q2 2021 (up from 65.72 Mbps in Q1 2021). HughesNet was a distant second at 19.73 Mbps (15.07 Mbps in Q1 2021) and Viasat third at 18.13 Mbps (17.67 Mbps in Q1 2021). None of these are as fast as the 115.22 Mbps median download speed for all fixed broadband providers in the U.S. during Q2 2021, but it beats digging twenty miles (or more) of trench to hook up to local infrastructure.
Starlink’s median upload speed of 13.89 Mbps (up from 13.77 Mbps in Q1 2021) was much closer to that on fixed broadband (17.18 Mbps in Q2 2021, 15.99 Mbps in Q1 2021). Viasat had the second fastest upload speed among satellite providers at 3.38 Mbps (3.48 in Q1 2021). HughesNet was third (2.43 Mbps in Q1 and Q2 2021).
Critically, Starlink was the only satellite internet provider with a median latency that was anywhere near that seen on fixed broadband in Q2 2021 (45 ms and 14 ms, respectively). A low latency connection is more responsive, making it essential for many common applications such as voice and video calling, gaming and live streaming of content. Starlink is able to achieve these lower latency numbers through the use of their low earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellation. At altitudes between 550-1200 km, these satellites are physically closer to the earth’s surface than traditional satellite providers. Therefore it takes less time for the signal to relay back to a downlink station on earth, ensuring a much more responsive connectivity experience for the user. Viasat and HughesNet both utilize considerably higher “geosynchronous” orbits of around 35,000 km for their satellites. This allows them to serve much wider swaths of the Earth’s surface with fewer satellites, but with a dramatic increase in latency in our data of 630 ms and 724 ms respectively.
Satellite internet speeds in the U.S. are increasing, mostly
Consumers are used to incremental increases in fixed broadband performance as that’s a developed technology with a stable market share. Satellite internet is newer and speeds fluctuate as technologies improve and as more users are added to sometimes crowded networks. Data from Speedtest Intelligence during Q1-Q2 2021 shows some of these struggles as median download speeds for both Starlink and HughesNet dipped in February and then rose again through the period only to dip again in June. This could be related to seasonal weather patterns. Viasat’s median download speed rose slightly from January through April and then started to decline slightly in May and June. We’ll continue watching the performance of these companies over time to see if they reach the steady climb that fixed broadband enjoys.
Starlink performance varies at the county level, but not widely
We saw sufficient samples during Q2 2021 to analyze Starlink performance in 458 counties in the U.S. While there was about a 100 Mbps range in performance between the county with the fastest median download speed (Morgan County, Alabama at 168.30 Mbps) and the county with the slowest median download speed (Madison County, Indiana at 64.51 Mbps), even the lower-end speeds are well above the FCC’s Baseline performance tier of at least a 25 Mbps download speed. We also saw many more counties qualify for analysis during Q2 2021 than we saw in Q1 2021.
Satellite internet performance elsewhere in the world
The ambition and potential of satellite internet providers is of course to increase internet access across the globe. To that end, we examined satellite internet performance in countries with an established market share.
Brazil: Viasat download speed is comparable to fixed broadband, upload is not
Viasat’s 60.30 Mbps median download speed during Q2 2021 in Brazil was very close to the national average for fixed broadband of 61.38 Mbps. Viasat’s median upload speed (1.05 Mbps) was much slower, however, than that on fixed broadband (28.75 Mbps), and Viasat’s latency was much higher (613 ms vs 7 ms).
Our previous article showed that Starlink’s median download speed was slower than fixed broadband in three provinces and faster in two. Data from Q2 2021 shows that Starlink’s median download speed exceeded that of fixed broadband in Canada (86.92 Mbps vs. 84.24 Mbps), making Starlink a reasonable alternative to fixed broadband in Canada. Starlink’s median upload speed was slower than fixed broadband (13.63 Mbps vs. 17.76 Mbps). Latency on Starlink was much higher (55 ms vs. 12 ms), but many customers in remote areas would gladly accept a latency in that range in exchange for having access to internet service.
Starlink performance varies at the province level, but not widely
Starlink showed enough samples to analyze performance in 8 provinces in Canada during Q2 2021. Starlink’s Q2 2021 median download speed was faster than fixed broadband in five provinces (Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Quebec and Saskatchewan), though samples in Nova Scotia were few enough and showed enough variability that there is room for interpretation. Download speeds were comparable between Starlink and overall fixed broadband in two provinces (Alberta and Ontario) and fixed broadband was faster in British Columbia.
Chile: HughesNet shows comparable speeds here and in the U.S.
At 15.43 Mbps, the median download speed for HughesNet in Chile during Q2 2021 was not fast, especially compared with the country’s fixed broadband average of 111.94 Mbps. Median upload speeds also showed a wide gap (3.23 Mbps for HughesNet to 39.48 Mbps on fixed broadband), and HughesNet’s latency was very high (678 ms vs. 8 ms).
Colombia: HughesNet is slowest
The slowest performance we saw for HughesNet was in Colombia, where fixed broadband speeds are also slower than in other countries surveyed. HughesNet showed a median download speed of 9.28 Mbps during Q2 2021, compared with Colombia’s 35.90 Mbps for fixed broadband overall. Median upload speed was also slower using the satellite internet provider (3.03 Mbps) than fixed broadband (8.56 Mbps), and latency was much higher on satellite (799 ms vs. 17 ms).
France: Where the fastest Starlink download speeds are
Satellite internet users in France saw the fastest median download speeds from Starlink of all countries we surveyed during Q2 2021. At 139.39 Mbps, Starlink’s download speed easily beat the country-wide average for fixed broadband of 70.81 Mbps. Starlink’s upload speed was slower than the fixed broadband average, but still respectable (29.35 Mbps vs. 52.56 Mbps), and Starlink’s latency was higher (53 ms vs. 13 ms).
Germany: Starlink far surpasses local fixed broadband
Consumers looking for fast internet in Germany have a great option in Starlink. Starlink’s median download and upload speeds were much faster than the country averages for fixed broadband in Q2 2021. The only drawback is Starlink’s 37 ms latency, compared to the 15 ms average for fixed broadband.
Mexico: Viasat and HughesNet are comparable, though slower than fixed broadband
Mexico has options when it comes to satellite internet, and the faster of the two options appears to be Viasat, for now. With a median download speed of 13.95 Mbps in Mexico during Q2 2021, Viasat was faster than HughesNet (11.92 Mbps) but slower than the country’s average for fixed broadband (29.99 Mbps). Median upload speed told a similar story, though HughesNet was slightly faster than Viasat (3.25 Mbps vs. 2.01 Mbps). While Viasat’s latency was high (672 ms vs 13 ms for fixed broadband), it was lower than HughesNet’s (714 ms).
New Zealand: Starlink is faster than fixed broadband
Data from Speedtest Intelligence shows that Starlink’s median download speed was much faster than New Zealand’s average fixed broadband download speed during Q2 2021 (127.02 Mbps vs. 78.85 Mbps), and the upload speeds were nearly identical (23.61 Mbps vs. 23.51 Mbps). Starlink did have a much higher latency (101 ms vs. 7 ms). Starlink is relatively new in the country and does not have a large market share yet; we’ll be interested to see how their speeds hold up under heavier use.
United Kingdom: Starlink beats fixed broadband providers
Starlink showed a much faster median download speed in the U.K. during Q2 2021 (108.30 Mbps) than the country’s average for fixed broadband (50.14 Mbps). Starlink’s upload speed was also slightly faster (15.64 Mbps vs. 14.76 Mbps), and the latency was pretty good, given the distance traveled (37 ms vs. 15 ms). This brings Starlink closer to contender status for consumers across the U.K., not just those stranded in internet-free zones in Northern Scotland, once the service interruptions are under control. It also shows that because satellite internet is not constrained by the infrastructure of a given country, there is the potential to radically outperform fixed broadband.
This data is changing rapidly as satellite internet providers launch new service locations and improve their technology. We’ll be excited to see if Starlink is still the satellite provider to beat next quarter and in what other countries satellite internet provides a viable alternative to fixed broadband.
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.
SpaceX’s Starlink internet service is the clear leader among consumer-oriented satellite internet providers in Latin America. Indeed, the company accounted for 98.2% of all consumer-oriented, satellite-based Speedtests conducted throughout the region in the third quarter of 2025.
But success invites competition. Starlink continues to push against established satellite internet providers Viasat and HughesNet. And soon it will face even more competition when Amazon Leo commercially launches service later this year.
Regardless, rural internet users throughout Latin America stand to benefit: The median download speed available through a satellite internet connection – across all consumer-oriented satellite internet providers – rose from 29.12 Mbps in the first quarter of 2023 to 72.01 Mbps in the third quarter of 2025.
Key takeaways:
Starlink consistently provided faster download and upload speeds throughout Latin America when compared with other satellite operators offering internet services to consumers between the first quarter of 2023 and the third quarter of 2025. Starlink’s median download speeds across the region reached 82.54 Mbps in the third quarter of 2025, above Viasat’s 32.73 Mbps and 15.93 Mbps from HughesNet. In some cases, Starlink’s median download speeds were also competitive with those from local fixed internet providers, such as in the Dominican Republic. But in other countries, like Chile, Starlink’s median download speeds were around a third of those provided by local fixed internet providers in the third quarter of 2025.
Starlink’s network performance has improved across many different Latin American countries. For example, its median download speeds have been on the upswing in Chile, Mexico, Brazil, and the Dominican Republic (the company’s first four Latin American markets) since the beginning of 2025. And in the third quarter of 2025, the company’s latency speeds improved in countries like Costa Rica, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras, likely due to the installation of new ground stations and other terrestrial infrastructure in that specific region.
Competition is poised to rise in the Latin American market for consumer-oriented satellite internet service. While Starlink plans upgrades to its own system, so too are existing providers like Viasat and HughesNet. Meanwhile, newcomers like Amazon Leo promise to provide alternatives.
Starlink lands in Latam
According to the GSMA’s Mobile Connectivity Index, significant portions of Latin America’s residents live in rural areas. In Brazil, the region’s largest country by population, 12% of residents lived in such areas in 2024. In Mexico, that figure was 18%. In Colombia and Peru, it was 21%. And in Bolivia, it was 29%.
Obviously this can create challenges for Latin Americans on the hunt for high-speed internet access. For example, one study from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) found that 2,817 schools in Guatemala lacked adequate connectivity. The groups acknowledged that satellites are the only feasible technological option that could bring all of those schools online.
That said, satellites still represent a tiny fraction of the overall market for broadband services in Latin America. According to one estimate, satellite internet services in the region generated $562 million in revenues in 2024 – or around 1% of the estimated $56 billion generated by the region’s broadband services (including fiber and mobile) in 2024. That figure dovetails with recent numbers from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which calculated that satellites accounted for 1% of fixed broadband subscriptions across all OECD countries at the end 2024.
Starlink and other satellite internet providers could help grow these numbers. Already Starlink’s Speedtest samples across Latin America have increased by more than 4x during the past 11 quarters.
Starlink’s Latin American growth is underpinned by the 10,000 low Earth orbit (LEO) Starlink satellites launched via SpaceX rockets since 2019. In 2025 alone, SpaceX has conducted more than 100 Starlink satellite launch missions. According to the GSMA, Starlink now controls up to 90% of the world’s communication satellites (excluding the three major Chinese constellations).
In early November 2025, Starlink said it provided connections to a total of 8 million people globally. That’s up from the 7 million mark Starlink reported at the end of August 2025 – a 14% increase in its customer base in just 69 days.
According to local telecom regulators, Starlink counted a total of 425,514 customers across Brazil and Mexico (Latin America’s two most populous countries) toward the end of last year. That would account for around 10% of the 4 million people Starlink counted in its global customer base at that time.
Starlink first began offering services in Latin America in 2021, starting with Chile (in September 2021) and then quickly expanding to Mexico (November 2021), Brazil (January 2022) and the Dominican Republic (July 2022).
Starlink's First Four Latin American Markets
Ookla Speedtest data, starting after market launch | Q4 2021 – Q3 2025
In general, Starlink’s median download speeds dipped in the months after its initial launch in each market, as the company loads more users onto its network. This is a consequence of multiple users sharing a finite resource (Starlink’s network and spectrum) and it can also be seen in Starlink’s performance on other continents as well as during events that bring together large numbers of Starlink users. As the company’s network speeds slow, Starlink can then tailor its pricing and offerings in order to moderate the addition of new customers onto its network – the company’s coverage map currently shows locations where its services are “sold out.”
The overall competitiveness of Starlink’s network performance can vary dramatically by country. In Chile, for example, Starlink’s median download speeds in the third quarter of 2025 (106.38 Mbps) significantly trailed those available from the country’s fixed internet providers at 354.53 Mbps. Chile, after all, is where 50 Gbps service plans are beginning to emerge.
Meanwhile, in the Dominican Republic, Starlink’s median download speeds of 55.01 Mbps in the third quarter of 2025 were very close to the 53.71 Mbps median download speeds provided by the country’s fixed internet providers.
Starlink accelerates across Latin America
This, however, is just the beginning. Since the start of 2023, Starlink has introduced its satellite internet services in a total of 11 new Latin American markets, countries that account for around one out of every four Latin Americans.
Market
Starlink launch date
Peru
January 2023
Colombia
January 2023
El Salvador
April 2023
Panama
May 2023
Guatemala
July 2023
Costa Rica
November 2023
Honduras
December 2023
Paraguay
December 2023
Argentina
March 2024
Uruguay
May 2024
Guyana
April 2025
In general, Starlink’s median upload and download speeds in these newer markets have been rising since the beginning of this year, likely due to the additional satellites Starlink has been adding to its constellation.
Starlink Latin American Market Launches, Q1 2023 – Q3 2025
Ookla Speedtest data for each of Starlink's new markets in Latin America, starting after the market launch
Starlink’s latency measurements – particularly in neighboring Central American countries like Costa Rica, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras – showed improvement in the third quarter of 2025. That may be due to the installation of new ground stations and other terrestrial infrastructure in that specific region. Such equipment can more quickly route user traffic from Starlink’s satellite network and onto the public internet backbone via physically shorter, more direct paths to users’ internet destinations.
Along these lines, Starlink’s own network performance map shows Guyana (Starlink’s newest Latin American market) with higher latency speeds than any other location in Latin America. A third-party map of Starlink’s terrestrial infrastructure indicates a possible reason: The nearest Starlink terrestrial infrastructure is in Manaus, Brazil, some 350 miles away from Guyana.
Starlink isn’t the only game in town
Starlink is a relatively new player in the market for satellite internet services across Latin America.
Viasat, founded in the 1980s, counts around 157,000 satellite internet subscribers in the U.S., down from around 228,000 a year ago. The company does not disclose the number of customers it has outside of the U.S. And HughesNet, owned by EchoStar, was founded in the 1990s and counts roughly 783,000 satellite internet customers globally. That too is down from the 912,000 it counted a year ago. HughesNet doesn’t break out its Latin American customer figures, but around a year ago it told one publication that it had 400,000 subscribers across Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, and Peru (which would account for about 44% of the company’s global customer base at the time).
Like Starlink, both Viasat and HughesNet sell satellite internet services directly to consumers. And like Starlink, both companies also operate their own satellites. However, Viasat and HughesNet maintain a handful of large, geostationary orbit (GEO) satellites whereas Starlink’s satellites are smaller, much more plentiful, and orbit closer to the Earth.
This design difference in satellite constellations is the main reason for the disparity in performance between Starlink and Viasat and HughesNet in Latin America and elsewhere.
Latin American Consumer-Oriented Satellite Internet Providers
Ookla Speedtest data | Latin America | Q1 2023 – Q3 2025
Satellite market on course to become more complex and diverse
Starlink, Viasat and HughesNet aren’t the only companies flying satellites over Latin America.
For example, OneWeb Eutelsat also operates a global LEO constellation of 600 satellites. The company, originally founded in 2012, eventually filed for bankruptcy protection and, later, merged with European GEO satellite operator Eutelsat to become OneWeb Eutelsat. Today, it focuses on wholesale connectivity rather than direct-to-consumer sales. OneWeb Eutelsat connections occasionally show up in Ookla data for Latin America but not in statistically relevant numbers.
SES also targets the market for wholesale satellite internet services in Latin America. The company, founded in the 1980s, operates both GEO and medium Earth orbit (MEO) satellites. Like OneWeb Eutelsat, SES connections occasionally show up in Ookla data for Latin America with speeds generally below those provided by the likes of Viasat and HughesNet.
Finally, Andesat and Hispasat are also worth mentioning in a discussion of satellite internet because both companies are based in Latin America and both operate a handful of their own satellites. Both companies target the business-to-business sector, like SES and OneWeb Eutelsat. Hispasat connections occasionally show up in Ookla data for Latin America, and speeds are similar to those of SES.
Nonetheless, Andesat and Hispasat are important because they both dovetail with ongoing geopolitical sensitivities concerning national satellite sovereignty. For example, Starlink is not currently authorized in Bolivia, reflecting that country’s specific regulatory environment. On the opposite side of such issues, Starlink cannot sell services in Venezuela due to U.S. embargoes.
Starlink’s coverage map reflects these ongoing geopolitical realities, showing coverage gaps across Latin American countries like Cuba and Nicaragua.
That said, much may change in the future. Amazon Leo’s pending launch of commercial satellite internet service is perhaps the clearest signal of this change. Last year, Latin American media and telecom provider Vrio announced plans to sell Amazon Leo connections to consumers in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia through DirecTV Latin America and Sky Brasil.
Meanwhile, Viasat and HughesNet are planning to launch additional satellites in support of their own offerings. Other satellite companies – such as Telesat in Canada – are also planning to join the fray.
But Starlink isn’t standing still. The company is planning a major upgrade to its satellite constellation – via its bigger V3 satellites – that could further improve its network speeds and capacity. That effort may be bolstered by SpaceX’s bigger Starship rocket, which promises to launch more Starlink satellites than the company’s current rockets.
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Starlink enciende la fiesta de internet en la América Latina rural
El servicio de internet por satélite de SpaceX está registrando un crecimiento en toda América Latina, justo cuando otras compañías intensifican las alternativas.
El servicio de internet Starlink de SpaceX es el líder claro entre los proveedores de internet por satélite orientados al consumidor en América Latina. De hecho, la compañía representó el 98,2% de todos las muestras de Speedtest por satélite hechas por consumidor registradas en toda la región en el tercer trimestre de 2025.
Pero el éxito atrae a la competencia. Starlink continúa presionando a los proveedores de internet por satélite establecidos Viasat y HughesNet. Y pronto se enfrentará a aún más competencia cuando Amazon Leo lance comercialmente su servicio a finales de este año.
En cualquier caso, los usuarios rurales de internet en toda América Latina se beneficiarán: la velocidad media de descarga disponible a través de una conexión a internet por satélite —en todos los proveedores de internet por satélite— aumentó de 29,12 Mbps en el primer trimestre de 2023 a 72,01 Mbps en el tercer trimestre de 2025.
Principales conclusiones:
Starlink proporcionó de manera constante velocidades de descarga y subida más rápidas en toda América Latina en comparación con otros operadores de satélite que ofrecen servicios de internet a los consumidores entre el primer trimestre de 2023 y el tercer trimestre de 2025. Las velocidades medianas de descarga de Starlink en la región alcanzaron 82,54 Mbps en el tercer trimestre de 2025, por encima de los 32,73 Mbps de Viasat y los 15,93 Mbps de HughesNet. En algunos casos, las velocidades medianas de descarga de Starlink también fueron competitivas con las de los proveedores de internet fijos locales, como en la República Dominicana. Pero en otros países, como Chile, las velocidades medianas de descarga de Starlink fueron alrededor de un tercio de las proporcionadas por los proveedores de internet fijos locales en el tercer trimestre de 2025.
El rendimiento de la red de Starlink ha mejorado en muchos países diferentes de América Latina. Por ejemplo, sus velocidades medianas de descarga han ido en aumento en Chile, México, Brasil y la República Dominicana (los primeros cuatro mercados latinoamericanos de la compañía) desde principios de 2025. Y en el tercer trimestre de 2025, la latencia de la compañía mejoró en países como Costa Rica, Guatemala, El Salvador y Honduras, probablemente debido a la instalación de nuevas estaciones terrestres y otras infraestructuras terrestres en esa región específica.
La competencia está a punto de aumentar en el mercado latinoamericano de servicios de internet por satélite orientados al consumidor. Mientras Starlink planea mejoras en su propio sistema, también lo están haciendo los proveedores existentes como Viasat y HughesNet. Mientras tanto, los recién llegados como Amazon Leo prometen proporcionar alternativas.
Starlink aterriza en Latam
Según el Índice de Conectividad Móvil de la GSMA, una parte significativa de los residentes de América Latina vive en zonas rurales. En Brasil, el país más grande de la región por población, el 12% de los residentes vivía en dichas áreas en 2024. En México, esa cifra era del 18%. En Colombia y Perú, era del 21%. Y en Bolivia, era del 29%.
Obviamente, esto puede generar desafíos para los latinoamericanos en la búsqueda de acceso a internet de alta velocidad. Por ejemplo, un estudio del Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (BID) y la Unión Internacional de Telecomunicaciones (UIT) descubrió que 2.817 escuelas en Guatemala carecían de la conectividad adecuada. Los grupos reconocieron que los satélites son la única opción tecnológica viable que podría conectar todas esas escuelas.
Dicho esto, los satélites todavía representan una ínfima parte del mercado global de servicios de banda ancha en América Latina. Según una estimación, los servicios de internet por satélite en la región generaron 562 millones de dólares en ingresos en 2024, o alrededor del 1% de los 56 mil millones de dólares estimados generados por los servicios de banda ancha de la región (incluyendo fibra y móvil) en 2024. Esa cifra concuerda con los números recientes de la Organización para la Cooperación y el Desarrollo Económicos (OCDE), que calculó que los satélites representaban el 1% de las suscripciones de banda ancha fija en todos los países de la OCDE a finales de 2024.
Starlink y otros proveedores de internet por satélite podrían ayudar a aumentar estas cifras. Las muestras de Speedtest de Starlink en toda América Latina ya se han multiplicado por más de 4 durante los últimos 11 trimestres.
El crecimiento de Starlink en América Latina se sustenta en los 10.000 satélites Starlink de órbita terrestre baja (LEO) lanzados mediante cohetes SpaceX desde 2019. Solo en 2025, SpaceX ha llevado a cabo más de 100 misiones de lanzamiento de satélites Starlink. Según la GSMA, Starlink ahora controla hasta el 90% de los satélites de comunicaciones del mundo (excluyendo las tres principales constelaciones chinas).
A principios de noviembre de 2025, Starlink dijo que proporcionaba conexiones a un total de 8 millones de personas a nivel mundial. Eso es un aumento con respecto a la marca de 7 millones que Starlink reportó a finales de agosto de 2025, un aumento del 14% en su base de clientes en sólo 69 días.
Según los reguladores locales de telecomunicaciones, Starlink contaba con un total de 425.514 clientes entre Brasil y México (los dos países más poblados de América Latina) hacia finales del año pasado. Eso representaría alrededor del 10% de los 4 millones de personas con las que Starlink contaba en su base de clientes global en ese momento.
Starlink comenzó a ofrecer servicios en América Latina por primera vez en 2021, empezando por Chile (en septiembre de 2021) y luego expandiéndose rápidamente a México (noviembre de 2021), Brasil (enero de 2022) y la República Dominicana (julio de 2022).
Primeros cuatro mercados de Starlink en Latinoamérica
Datos de Speedtest de Ookla, desde el lanzamiento en el mercado / 4º trim. 2021 – 3er trim. 2025
En general, las velocidades medianas de descarga de Starlink disminuyeron en los meses posteriores a su lanzamiento inicial en cada mercado, a medida que la empresa incorporaba más usuarios a su red. Esta es una consecuencia de que múltiples usuarios compartan un recurso finito (la red y el espectro de Starlink) y también se puede observar en el rendimiento de Starlink en otros continentes, así como durante eventos que reúnen a un gran número de usuarios de Starlink. A medida que la velocidad de la red de la compañía se ralentiza, Starlink puede ajustar sus precios y ofertas para moderar la adición de nuevos clientes a su red. El mapa de cobertura de la compañía actualmente muestra ubicaciones donde sus servicios están “agotados” (sold out).
La competitividad general del rendimiento de la red de Starlink puede variar drásticamente según el país. En Chile, por ejemplo, las velocidades medianas de descarga de Starlink en el tercer trimestre de 2025 (106,38 Mbps) quedaron significativamente por detrás de las disponibles a través de los proveedores de internet fijos del país, con 354,53 Mbps. Después de todo, Chile es donde los planes de servicio de 50 Gbps están comenzando a surgir.
Mientras tanto, en la República Dominicana, las velocidades medianas de descarga de Starlink de 55,01 Mbps en el tercer trimestre de 2025 estuvieron muy cerca de las velocidades medias de descarga de 53,71 Mbps proporcionadas por los proveedores de internet fijos del país.
Starlink acelera en América Latina
Sin embargo, esto es sólo el principio. Desde el comienzo de 2023, Starlink ha introducido sus servicios de internet por satélite en un total de 11 nuevos mercados latinoamericanos, países que representan aproximadamente a uno de cada cuatro latinoamericanos.
Mercado
Fecha lanzamiento Starlink
Perú
Enero 2023
Colombia
Enero 2023
El Salvador
Abril 2023
Panamá
Mayo 2023
Guatemala
Julio 2023
Costa Rica
Noviembre 2023
Honduras
Diciembre 2023
Paraguay
Diciembre 2023
Argentina
Marzo 2024
Uruguay
Mayo 2024
Guyana
Abril 2025
En general, las velocidades medianas de subida y descarga de Starlink en estos mercados más nuevos han ido en aumento desde principios de este año, probablemente debido a los satélites adicionales que Starlink ha estado añadiendo a su constelación.
In general, Starlink’s median upload and download speeds in these newer markets have been rising since the beginning of this year, likely due to the additional satellites Starlink has been adding to its constellation.
Lanzamiento Starlink en Latinoamérica. 1er trim. 2021 – 3er trim. 2025
Datos de Speedtest de Ookla para cada uno de los nuevos mercados en Latinoamérica, desde el lanzamiento en el mercado
Las mediciones de latencia de Starlink —particularmente en países vecinos de Centroamérica como Costa Rica, Guatemala, El Salvador y Honduras— mostraron una mejora en el tercer trimestre de 2025. Esto puede deberse a la instalación de nuevas estaciones terrestres y otras infraestructuras terrestres en esa región específica. Dicho equipo puede encaminar más rápidamente el tráfico de los usuarios desde la red satelital de Starlink hacia la red troncal de internet pública a través de rutas físicamente más cortas y directas hacia los destinos de internet de los usuarios.
En esta línea, el propio mapa de rendimiento de la red de Starlink muestra a Guyana (el mercado latinoamericano más reciente de Starlink) con menores latencias que cualquier otra ubicación en América Latina. Un mapa de terceros de la infraestructura terrestre de Starlink indica una posible razón: la infraestructura terrestre de Starlink más cercana se encuentra en Manaus, Brasil, a unas 350 millas (aproximadamente 563 kilómetros) de Guyana.
Starlink no es el único actor en el mercado
Starlink es un actor relativamente nuevo en el mercado de servicios de internet por satélite en América Latina.
Viasat, fundada en la década de 1980, cuenta con alrededor de 157.000 suscriptores de internet por satélite en EE. UU., una cifra inferior a los aproximadamente 228.000 de hace un año. La compañía no revela el número de clientes que tiene fuera de EE. UU. Y HughesNet, propiedad de EchoStar, fue fundada en la década de 1990 y cuenta con aproximadamente 783.000 clientes de internet por satélite a nivel mundial. Esta cifra también es inferior a los 912.000 que tenía hace un año. HughesNet no desglosa sus cifras de clientes en América Latina, pero hace aproximadamente un año declaró a una publicación que tenía 400.000 suscriptores entre Brasil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, México y Perú (lo que representaría alrededor del 44% de la base global de clientes de la compañía en ese momento).
Al igual que Starlink, tanto Viasat como HughesNet venden servicios de internet por satélite directamente a los consumidores. Y al igual que Starlink, ambas compañías también operan sus propios satélites. Sin embargo, Viasat y HughesNet mantienen un puñado de satélites grandes en órbita geoestacionaria (GEO), mientras que los satélites de Starlink son más pequeños, mucho más numerosos y orbitan más cerca de la Tierra.
Esta diferencia de diseño en las constelaciones de satélites es la razón principal de la disparidad en el rendimiento entre Starlink, Viasat y HughesNet, tanto en América Latina como en otros lugares.
Proveedores de satélite al consumidor final en Latinoamérica
Datos de Speedtest de Ookla / Latinoamérica / 1er trim 2023 – 3er trim. 2025
El mercado del satélite rumbo a ser más complejo y diverso
Starlink, Viasat y HughesNet no son las únicas compañías que tienen satélites sobre América Latina.
Por ejemplo, OneWeb Eutelsat también opera una constelación LEO global de 600 satélites. La compañía, fundada originalmente en 2012, finalmente se declaró en bancarrota y, más tarde, se fusionó con el operador europeo de satélites GEO Eutelsat para convertirse en OneWeb Eutelsat. Hoy en día, se centra en la conectividad mayorista (wholesale) en lugar de las ventas directas al consumidor. Las conexiones de OneWeb Eutelsat aparecen ocasionalmente en los datos de Ookla para América Latina, pero no en números estadísticamente relevantes.
SES también se dirige al mercado de servicios de internet satelital mayoristas en América Latina. La compañía, fundada en la década de 1980, opera satélites tanto GEO como de órbita terrestre media (MEO). Al igual que OneWeb Eutelsat, las conexiones de SES aparecen ocasionalmente en los datos de Ookla para América Latina, con velocidades generalmente inferiores a las proporcionadas por empresas como Viasat y HughesNet.
Finalmente, también vale la pena mencionar a Andesat e Hispasat en una discusión sobre internet satelital, porque ambas compañías tienen su sede en América Latina y ambas operan un puñado de sus propios satélites. Ambas compañías se dirigen al sector business-to-business (de empresa a empresa), al igual que SES y OneWeb Eutelsat. Las conexiones de Hispasat aparecen ocasionalmente en los datos de Ookla para América Latina, y las velocidades son similares a las de SES.
No obstante, Andesat e Hispasat son importantes porque ambas encajan con las sensibilidades geopolíticas actuales relativas a la soberanía satelital nacional. Por ejemplo, Starlink no está actualmente autorizado en Bolivia, lo que refleja el entorno regulatorio específico de ese país. En el lado opuesto de tales cuestiones, Starlink no puede vender servicios en Venezuela debido a los embargos de EE.UU.
El mapa de cobertura de Starlink refleja estas realidades geopolíticas actuales, mostrando lagunas de cobertura en países latinoamericanos como Cuba y Nicaragua.
Dicho esto, mucho puede cambiar en el futuro. El inminente lanzamiento del servicio comercial de internet por satélite Amazon Leo es quizás la señal más clara de este cambio. El año pasado, el proveedor latinoamericano de medios y telecomunicaciones Vrio anunció planes para vender conexiones de Amazon Leo a consumidores en Argentina, Brasil, Chile, Uruguay, Perú, Ecuador y Colombia a través de DirecTV Latin America y Sky Brasil.
Mientras tanto, Viasat y HughesNet están planeando lanzar satélites adicionales en apoyo de sus propias ofertas. Otras compañías satelitales, como Telesat en Canadá, también planean unirse a la contienda.
Pero Starlink no se queda quieto. La compañía está planeando una actualización importante de su constelación de satélites, a través de sus satélites V3 más grandes, que podría mejorar aún más la velocidad y capacidad de su red. Ese esfuerzo puede verse reforzado por el cohete Starship, más grande de SpaceX, que promete lanzar más satélites Starlink que los cohetes actuales de la compañía.
Para obtener más información sobre los datos y la información de Speedtest Intelligence®, visite nuestro sitio web.
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.
Mike Dano is a Lead Industry Analyst in Ookla’s research and content team. He covers the North and South American markets, and global technology trends. Previously, Mike was a journalist covering the global telecom industry for 25 years at publications including RCR Wireless News, Fierce Network and Light Reading.
The LEO satellite provider is giving free gear to new customers in areas where it has excess capacity. Will it be able to handle an influx of new customers and still maintain its broadband speeds?
Key Takeaways
Users on Starlink’s network experienced median download speeds nearly double from 53.95 Mbps in Q3 2022 to 104.71 Mbps in Q1 2025. Median upload speeds also increased dramatically during the same period from 7.50 Mbps in Q3 2022 and to 14.84 Mbps in Q1 2025.
Only 17.4% of U.S. Starlink Speedtest users nationwide were able to get broadband speeds consistent with the FCC’s minimum requirement for broadband of 100 Mbps download speeds and 20 Mbps upload speeds. However, this small percentage of Starlink users is primarily due to its low upload speeds.
Speedtest® data for the states where Starlink is offering its free equipment to new users indicates that existing Starlink users are experiencing a range of median download speeds — from as high as 136.93 Mbps in Maine to as low as 72.65 Mbps in Alaska.
With Starlink’s substantial increase to its median upload and download speeds and ability to deliver broadband speeds of 100/20 Mbps to nearly 20% of Speedtest users across the country, the satellite provider is becoming an increasingly attractive broadband option for many.
SpaceX’s low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite provider Starlink is making inroads in the U.S. broadband market and trying to attract more subscribers by offering free equipment to new customers in states where it says it has excess capacity (more on this below).
Ookla® Speedtest data on Starlink indicates that the satellite company’s network performance has been on the uptick over the past couple of years and as of Q1 2025 17.42% of U.S. Starlink Speedtest users were able to get speeds consistent with the FCC’s minimum requirement for fixed broadband of 100 Mbps download speeds and 20 Mbps upload speeds.
Starlink is positioned to benefit from recent changes to the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced June 6 that it had reviewed the BEAD program and, as expected, it adopted a technology-neutral stance instead of prioritizing fiber deployments, making way for LEO satellite systems like Starlink to get BEAD funding.
In addition, some states such as Maine have launched state-funded programs that subsidize Starlink for some rural addresses and more are likely to follow. The Texas Broadband Development Office, for example, announced in January 2025 that it is developing a grant program to support LEO satellite broadband service in rural areas.
Starlink Upload, Download Speeds Are On the Rise
Starlink’s network performance over the past three years shows a dramatic increase in median download and upload speeds as well as a decline in latency.
Starlink’s performance across the U.S. from Q1 2022 until Q1 2025 indicates that after experiencing a decline in download speeds between Q1 2022 and Q3 2022, U.S. Speedtest users on Starlink’s network saw a median download speeds nearly double from 53.95 Mbps in Q3 2022 to 104.71 Mbps in Q1 2025.
The decline in median download speeds between Q1 2022 and Q3 2022 was likely due to growing pains as the satellite service added more subscribers and network usage increased.
A similar trend was observed in median upload speeds as Speedtest users saw their median upload speeds decline between Q1 2022 from 9.81 Mbps to 7.50 Mbps in Q3 2022 and then tick upward to Q1 2025 when median upload speeds reached 14.84 Mbps.
Starlink's Median Upload, Download and Latency Speeds
Q1 2022 through Q1 2025
Starlink's Median Upload, Download and Latency Speeds Over Time
Starlink’s Latency Ticks Downward
Perhaps more importantly than download and upload speeds is latency, which is the time it takes to transmit data from one point in the network to another. Transmitting data between earth and space is particularly challenging because of the distance involved. However, because Starlink’s satellites orbit the planet in low-orbit (about 340 miles above the earth) its latency is much lower than geostationary satellite systems that orbit about 22,000 miles above the earth. For example, signals from satellite system such as HughesNet have a much greater distance to travel, which is why Speedtest users on HughesNet experience a much higher median latency than Starlink Speedtest users.
A comparison of Starlink's Median Latency with HughesNet's Median Latency
Q1 2022 through Q1 2025
Starlink's low-Earth orbit median latency compared with geostationary satellite system's median latency
Starlink users in the U.S. experienced a median multi-server latency of 76 milliseconds (ms) in Q2 2022, but latency measurements ticked downward over time and in Q1 2025 Speedtest users clocked an average median latency of 45 ms.
Starlink said in March 2024 that it was improving its latency in the U.S. by adding six additional internet connection locations (also referred to as PoPs) and optimizing its gateway locations and its planning algorithms to ensure that traffic lands as close to its destination point as possible.
In addition, the satellite company has also steadily added more satellites to its constellation. In February 2022 Starlink had 1,560 satellites in orbit and as of February 2025 it had 6,751 satellites in orbit. At publication of this report, Starlink had launched an additional 24 satellites into low Earth orbit.
Starlink’s New Free Equipment Offer Targets Several States
Starlink recently announced plans to offer free equipment (valued at around $350) to new customers in areas where it has excess capacity. In the U.S., those areas are depicted on the map below and include all or portions of about 33 states.
Customers who receive the free gear must commit to a one-year plan, and they have a choice of one of two residential plans: An $80/mo plan that will give them speeds between 50-100 Mbps and a $120/mo plan that provides speeds of 250 Mbps.
Ookla Speedtest data for the states where Starlink is offering the free equipment indicates that existing Starlink users are experiencing a range of median download speeds — from as high as 136.93 Mbps in Maine to as low as 72.65 Mbps in Alaska. Perhaps more telling is the download speeds for Speedtest users in the 25th percentile, which provides the download speed performance for the bottom quarter of Speedtest users in these states.
With the exception of Alaska, the overall performance of the rest of the states, particularly the 25th percentile users in Nebraska, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Nevada and Wyoming is probably a better indication of why Starlink is offering free gear to these states. With the 25th percentile of Starlink users in these states experiencing download speeds of more than 80 Mbps there is likely plenty of excess capacity.
Although Starlink said its goal is to deliver service with just 20 milliseconds (ms) median latency, the lowest median latency rates recorded by Speedtest users in all or portions of the selected states was 38 ms in the District of Columbia and 39 ms in Arizona, Colorado and New Jersey. Alaska and Hawaii have the highest latency rates of 105 ms and 115 ms respectively. The higher latency rates in these two states is likely due to these two states being more geographically distant from Starlink’s constellation of satellites and not having the same density of satellites as the continental U.S.
Speedtest Performance for Starlink Users in States that Get Free Gear
The portions or entirety of 33 states or territories where Starlink has decided to offer free gear to potential customers include both high density areas such as Washington D.C. and New Jersey as well as low density states like Alaska and Wyoming. With the exception of Alaska and West Texas, all of the states have a median download speed of more than 100 Mbps.
When looking at the 25th percentile of users (which are the bottom quarter of Starlink users in download speed performance) only one state – Alaska– has a download speed in the 30 Mbps range and three states have 25th percentile users getting in the 50 Mbps range for download speeds.
In addition, when it comes to latency, 20 states have a median latency between 40-49 ms and two states on this list—Arizona and New Jersey— and Washington, D.C. —have median latency under 40 ms.
Starlink Speedtest Performance In the 50 U.S. States
How each state performs in latency, median download, and 25th percentile download
Starlink's performance in latency, median download, and 25th percentile download in all 50 states in the U.S.
Speedtest Performance in States Not Included in Starlink’s Free Equipment Offer
Many of the states where residents are not eligible to get Starlink’s free equipment offer are in the middle and southeastern areas of the U.S. and only eleven of those states have median download speeds over 100 Mbps compared to 28 states and Washington, D.C. that are in the eligible equipment list.
Median latency rates in these ineligible states are very similar to the eligible states with 14 states having a median latency rate between 40- 49 ms. However, when examining the 25th percentile of users (which are the bottom quarter of Starlink users in download speed performance) one state — Florida — has 25th percentile download speeds of just 27.12 Mbps, Washington has 25th percentile download speeds of 46.92 Mbps and Louisiana has 25th percentile download speeds of just 48.25 Mbps.
Northeast and Rural Mid-West States Win in Minimum Broadband Speeds
Only 17.4% of Starlink Speedtest users are able to get broadband speeds consistent with the FCC’s minimum requirement for broadband of 100 Mbps download speeds and 20 Mbps upload speeds. Much of this is due to Starlink’s low upload speeds, which are on the uptick but with a combined overall median upload speed of 14.84 Mbps in Q1 2025 there is still room for improvement.
However, when we look at all satellite providers that deliver service in the U.S., these providers combined are only able to provide 15.75% of Speedtest users with speeds that meet the FCC’s minimum requirement of 100/20 Mbps, which means Starlink outperforms the other providers in this category.
On a state level analysis, when comparing the median download and upload speeds collected in Q1 2025 across all 50 states and Washington, D.C., South Dakota is the No. 1 state with 42.3% of Starlink users getting the FCC’s minimum standard for fixed broadband speeds (100 Mbps downstream/20 Mbps upstream). All of the top-performing Starlink states are in the Northeastern and Midwestern U.S.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, the states with the lowest percentage of users receiving 100/20 Mbps broadband speeds are primarily in the Southeastern U.S. The only state outside of that area is Alaska with the smallest number of Speedtest users —just 5.3%—receiving 100/20 Mbps.
States With the Highest % of Starlink Users that Receive 100/20 Mbps Broadband Speeds
State
% of Starlink users that receive 100/20 Mbps
South Dakota
42.3
Rhode Island
39.0
Wyoming
38.5
Maine
36.5
Massachusetts
35.1
Data as of Q1 2025
States with the Lowest % of Starlink Users that Receive 100/20 Mbps Broadband Speeds
State
% of Starlink users that receive 100/20 Mbps
Alaska
5.3
Mississippi
8.4
Louisiana
9.0
Arkansas
9.6
Florida
9.8
Data as of Q1 2025
Starlink Delivers a Viable Broadband Option for Many
In our recent U.S. state broadband report which focused on Speedtest data from the 2H of 2024, we found that the number of states with 60% or more of Speedtest users getting speeds of 100/20 Mbps had increased substantially from the 1H of 2024.
However, it was disheartening to discover that during that same time period the digital divide within many states had actually increased (some of this is attributed to the demise of the Affordable Connectivity Program) rather than decreased leading us to conclude that many of the recent broadband investments were resulting in better urban coverage rather than closing the gap in rural areas.
With Starlink’s substantial increase to its median upload and download speeds and ability to deliver broadband speeds of 100/20 Mbps to nearly 20% of Speedtest users across the country, the satellite provider is becoming an increasingly attractive broadband option for many.
With Starlink’s latest promotional offer of free equipment to consumers in areas where it has excess capacity, we expect to see the company’s subscriber count grow throughout 2025. It will be interesting to see how the LEO provider balances subscriber growth with capacity.
We will continue to monitor Starlink’s speed performance in the U.S. throughout the year. For more information about Speedtest Intelligence® data and insights, please get in touch.
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Sue Marek is Ookla’s editorial director and part of the company’s analyst team. She oversees the company’s thought leadership and editorial content. Sue is a journalist with more than 30 years of experience covering the telecom industry and her work has appeared in Fierce Network, Light Reading, and SDxCentral. She is a frequent speaker at industry events and has moderated panels at Mobile World Las Vegas, Connect(x), the Consumer Electronics Show, the Competitive Carriers’ Show and 5G North America. Sue has a B.S. in journalism from the University of Colorado.
