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.
The Maine Connectivity Authority (MCA) recently made it possible for homes and businesses in remote locations of the state to become eligible to receive low-Earth orbit satellite internet service from Starlink. According to Ookla data, Starlink Speedtest users in Maine are able to get median download speeds of 116.77 Mbps, which surpasses the FCC’s threshold for broadband.
Maine is a Top 10 state in Ookla’s U.S. Broadband report, ranking 9th with a 30% year-on-year increase in Speedtest users who achieved broadband speeds (1H 2023 vs 1H 2024). Yet only 37.6% of Rural Speedtest users experienced speeds at or above the FCC thresholds of 100 Mbps download and 20 Mbps upload speeds for broadband, lagging its Urban counterparts by 13.3 percentage points.
Taking a look to see how the MCA Starlink program might help, here are current Starlink Speedtest user results in Maine:
1 Oct – 15 Dec 2024
10th percentile (Slower)
Median
90th percentile (Faster)
DL (Mbps)
22.81
116.77
250.96
UL (Mbps)
6.79
18.17
27.17
Latency* (ms)
72
47
37
* Multi-server latency
With a median of 116.77 Mbps download speed, a majority of Starlink Speedtest users are already exceeding the FCC’s 100 Mbps download speed target minimum. The median upload speed of 18.17 Mbps is close to the FCC’s 20 Mbps upload speed target minimum.
Taking a look at the slower results (that is, the 10th percentile, where 90% of Speedtest user tests results are faster), this cohort saw download speeds of 22.81 Mbps and upload speeds of 6.79 Mbps. Coincidentally, there exists a lower threshold of 25 Mbps download speed and 3 Mbps upload speed that divides the Unserved (below 25/3 Mbps) from the Underserved (above 25/3 Mbps; over 100/20 Mbps is considered Served by broadband internet).
These results are based upon the existing end-user equipment and the current satellite constellation. Newer customer premise equipment and recent (and future) satellite launches could improve these results.
Satellites are an important solution for addressing the digital divide in rural areas, as the MCA program with Starlink represents. The Starlink Speedtest results demonstrate this, and we look forward to revisiting this data as this program takes flight.
Ookla retains ownership of this article including all of the intellectual property rights, data, content graphs and analysis. This article may not be quoted, reproduced, distributed or published for any commercial purpose without prior consent. Members of the press and others using the findings in this article for non-commercial purposes are welcome to publicly share and link to report information with attribution to Ookla.
More than a million Canadians could be left out in the cold
In the head spinning geopolitical trade news, among many items was the canceling and uncanceling of Starlink in Ontario, Canada. In response to President Trump’s proposed tariffs on Canada, Ontario Premier Doug Ford stated on social media platform X that he planned to cancel the province’s contract with Starlink, which is owned by Elon Musk, who is working closely with Trump on a number of initiatives. However, within 24 hours of making that statement, Trump had delayed his planned tariffs and Ford said he would pause his retaliatory measures.
In Ontario and other provinces with relatively denser urbanization in their south, consumers have many options for broadband internet service. But in rural and remote areas of provinces and in much of The Territories, cancelling Starlink could result in the loss of internet connectivity entirely. Looking at Speedtest Intelligence data of Starlink users in Canada, we can estimate what might be at stake. We compared Starlink Speedtest user tests to the total number of fixed Speedtest user tests to estimate adoption trends among each Province and Territory from 2020 through 2024.
New Brunswick, Manitoba, Alberta and Ontario were the first to see traces of Starlink Speedtest users in 2020. Soon after in the first half of 2021, British Columbia, Nova Scotia, Quebec, and Saskatchewan appeared, with Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador lighting up in the second half of 2021 as well. Then the rest of Canada came in the back half of 2022 with the territories – Northwest Territories, Nunavut and Yukon – leaping into the picture.
Take off to the Great White North
A pattern emerges among the provinces and territories with the service launch of an adoption followed by a relative stabilization in the share of Starlink Speedtest user samples of the total fixed internet Speedtest samples.
Quite obviously the rates of adoption differ. As one would intuitively expect, the more-rural and less-population-dense areas see the steepest adoption curves. Nunavut in particular (population 37 thousand, whom all could fit inside the Rogers Center – home of the Toronto Blue Jays – yet similar in area to Mexico) rockets to the top of the chart and settles into the low-to-mid-40%s of Starlink Speedtest user sample share. Northwest Territories and Yukon, launching in the same time frame as Nunavut, also follow the more-rural-less-population-dense logic, reaching 27.8% and 20.9% share in 2H 2024.
Vertical scale notwithstanding, the pattern is this: a relatively quick market adoption with stabilization after a year roughly. Share stabilization could be due to the Starlink service fulfilling latent market demand or the satellite constellation’s capacity limits being reached (halting further sales of the service, like around Edmonton currently, for example, per starlink.com/map), or a combination of the two.
Ontario (the protagonist), British Columbia, and Quebec have the lowest percentage of rural populations in Canada, and that is reflected in their lower samples shares – 4.9%, 4.5% and 2.2%, respectively.
Bringing it back together – what is at stake? Imagine that Starlink Speedtest user share is projectable to the population of Canada. That calculates to roughly 2 million Canadians who could feel the effects of such a cancellation. While many of those affected could switch to another internet service provider, for some in Canada – Nunavut especially – satellite connectivity is sometimes the only means of accessing the internet. Some portion of these people would be casualties in a trade war.
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.
Recent satellite launches have improved Starlink’s performance in Europe, bolstering its credentials as a competitive broadband solution.
While Europe may not represent the largest market for satellite solutions compared to other large landmass regions with lower fiber density and a greater share of the population living in rural areas, low Earth orbit (LEO) constellations have emerged as an important part of the connectivity toolkit in the region.
SpaceX’s Starlink has secured a leading position in the LEO market, both in Europe and globally. With a network of more than 7,000 satellites worldwide, it remains the most capable in terms of coverage and capacity, providing broadband access throughout most of Europe.
As Starlink adoption on the continent has surged, even in unexpected places like London—where network capacity has been exhausted and the service is sold out—SpaceX has moved swiftly to bolster its constellation. The company ramped up investments to increase the density of its ground stations and launched a blitz of new satellites in the latter half of last year.
This article explores how SpaceX’s investments are contributing to Starlink’s performance in Europe as the service scales up amid intensifying competition from the rapid expansion of fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) infrastructure across the continent.
Key Takeaways:
Significant improvements in latency translate into better quality of experience (QoE) for Starlink users across Europe. The latency disparity between Starlink and the aggregate terrestrial fixed broadband market has narrowed substantially across Europe over the past two years. In Q4 2024, Starlink users in Western Europe experienced the lowest median latencies on the continent, with the United Kingdom (41 ms), Belgium (46 ms) and Luxembourg (46 ms) leading the way. Improvements in latency have boosted Starlink’s QoE performance for video streaming, web browsing and gaming, as evidenced by outcomes such as shorter video start times and reduced game latency.
Starlink’s download speeds are recovering in most countries as SpaceX continues to scale capacity with recent satellite launches. In Q4 2024, most European countries experienced an improvement in Starlink download speeds, likely driven by the continued expansion of the satellite constellation. The sharp increase in operational satellites at the end of October last year appears to have contributed to higher speeds across multiple countries, with some regions seeing particularly notable gains. Southern European countries such as Croatia (~70%) and Greece (~65%) recorded substantial quarter-on-quarter download speed increases between the third and fourth quarters of last year, now ranking among the fastest Starlink connections in Europe.
Starlink adoption is more highly concentrated in countries with lower levels of fiber penetration and a larger proportion of the population living in rural areas. Central and Southern European countries such as Germany, Greece, Italy and Croatia have below-average FTTH coverage compared to the EU average and exhibit higher levels of Starlink adoption, likely due to the LEO solution being relatively more competitive (either on performance or price) in these regions. At the same time, while Starlink continues to provide higher speeds than the aggregate terrestrial fixed broadband market in some countries—including Greece, the Czech Republic, Italy, and Croatia—the number of such markets is steadily decreasing. Significant fiber investments across Europe have improved fixed broadband speeds over the past two years, increasingly challenging Starlink’s competitiveness.
A Surge in Satellite Launches Expanded the Starlink Constellation in Late 2024
Source: SatelliteMap.space
Starlink latency improvements continue at pace across Europe
The physics of transmitting data across vast distances between Earth and space has long challenged satellite operators in their efforts to compete with terrestrial fixed broadband services in Europe on latency. Starlink’s LEO system has been a game-changer, significantly improving latency performance compared to traditional satellite systems that rely on mid-Earth or geostationary orbits.
Over the last two years, SpaceX has been focused on building on this advantage and narrowing the disparity between the performance of its service and what is available from terrestrial fixed operators. To achieve this, it has sought to reduce the distance and number of hops data travels across its network. This has involved massively expanding its satellite constellation over Europe—boosting inter-satellite links for more direct routing—and increasing ground station density to optimize connections to the terrestrial internet.
While the latencies observed in the aggregate fixed broadband market remain materially lower than those of Starlink across Europe, there has been remarkable progress in improving its competitiveness. Speedtest Intelligence® data reveals a consistent trend of double-digit declines in median latency across over a dozen European countries between Q4 2023 and Q4 2024.
During the period between Q4 2023 and Q4 2024, countries in Central and Southern Europe recorded significant improvements in Starlink’s median latency performance. Greece saw its median latency decline by 54%, while Switzerland and Austria saw declines of 28% and 27% respectively. These improvements are contributing to Western Europe’s strong overall performance in latency on Starlink connections, with several countries now approaching the 40 ms mark for the first time. The United Kingdom led the continent with a median latency of 41ms in Q4 2024, followed by Belgium (46 ms), Luxembourg (46 ms) and Ireland (47 ms).
This rapid pace of improvement in latency comes from a high baseline but is at least twice as fast as the underlying rate of improvement in the aggregate fixed broadband market across most European countries. A notable exception is Spain, where Starlink’s median latency of 54 ms showed only a 4% reduction over the year, matching the modest improvement seen in the rest of the country’s fixed broadband market. This limited improvement may reflect orbit-related factors, as neighboring Portugal also experienced a relatively small 8% reduction in Starlink latency compared to the larger improvements observed in most other European countries.
Across Starlink’s European footprint, latency outcomes continue to vary significantly by country. In Southern Europe, Cyprus (144 ms) and Malta (106 ms) recorded some of the continent’s highest latency in Q4 2024, while Nordic countries like Finland (89 ms) and Norway (79 ms)—despite often leading in Ookla’s terrestrial benchmarks—also lagged behind.
These regional disparities in latency performance highlight the immense technical challenge of delivering uniform service across Europe. Higher-latitude Nordic countries often rely on Starlink’s polar-orbit satellites for coverage in the far north, which can impact performance. Meanwhile, Cyprus and Malta’s higher latency may stem from a limited ground station presence, increasing reliance on inter-satellite links for connectivity.
Shifts in download speeds indicate Starlink is balancing capacity and demand in Europe
Unlike latency, which has seen significant and sustained improvements across most European countries over the past two years in Speedtest Intelligence data, Starlink’s download speed performance has faced growing pressure as the service scaled and network usage increased.
Between Q4 2022 and Q4 2023, Central European countries saw some of the steepest declines in median download speeds. In Germany, speeds fell by 31%—from 94.37 Mbps to 65.44 Mbps—while Switzerland recorded a 24% drop, going from 136.03 Mbps to 103.88 Mbps. Combined with the backdrop of improving median download speeds in terrestrial fixed broadband—driven by accelerating FTTH deployment and adoption—Starlink’s competitiveness on speed eroded over this period in many parts of Europe.
For the first time in Q4 2024, there were signs that the successive speed declines observed in previous quarters may have stabilized, with early indications of a potential recovery. However, given quarter-to-quarter variability, it remains to be seen whether this trend will hold in the coming year.
Nonetheless, the timing of these improvements dovetails with the reported jump in the number of Starlink satellites in service from late October last year, likely reflecting the additional capacity afforded by an expanded constellation above Europe.
Starlink Download Speeds Improved in Most European Countries in Q4 2024 Following Constellation Expansion
Speedtest Intelligence® | Q4 2022 — Q4 2024
While most European countries recorded a material quarter-on-quarter boost in Starlink’s median download speeds in Q4 2024, the most pronounced gains were concentrated in Southern Europe. The significant improvements in countries like Croatia (~70%) and Greece (~65%) have propelled them to be among the top in Europe in terms of median download speed on Starlink, joining other neighbors in nearby countries like Hungary and Romania.
Even the previously mentioned examples, Germany and Switzerland, for the first time in almost two years, saw a quarter-on-quarter speed increase in Q4 2024, rising by 18% and 11% respectively. The overall movements have left countries in Central and Southern Europe trailing in Starlink’s median download speed, with Cyprus (36.52 Mbps) and Malta (53.85 Mbps) ranking similarly as poorly as in latency, but others—most notably the Nordics—performing relatively better on median download speed than latency.
Despite the decrease in the number of countries where Starlink delivers higher median download speeds than the aggregate terrestrial fixed broadband market over time, principally a result of rising FTTH adoption driving improved fixed performance, several countries still stand out.
Starlink is Competitive with Fixed Operators in Southern Europe on Download Speed
Speedtest Intelligence® | Q4 2024
For example, in Q4 2024, median download speeds on Starlink were faster in Greece, Croatia, Italy, Austria, the Czech Republic and Estonia than the aggregate terrestrial fixed broadband speeds in these markets, all of which feature FTTH coverage below the EU average.
In the many countries where Starlink is not ahead of the rest of the fixed market on download speed performance—which is the majority of European countries—it remains competitive on other related metrics, including consistency, which measures the proportion of Speedtest samples exceeding minimum thresholds of 25 Mbps for download and 3 Mbps for upload.
In the United Kingdom, for example, Starlink’s consistency performance remained within the range of the rest of the fixed market over the last year, behind operators like Virgin Media and Vodafone but ahead of TalkTalk and PlusNet. In QoE measures such as Game Score™ (a 0-100 weighted sum incorporating multiple video performance factors), it has steadily closed the gap with the broader UK fixed market, narrowing from over 5 points in Q4 2023 to less than 3 points in Q4 2024.
This improvement in video QoE on Starlink connections has been observed across many European countries over the past year, driven by reductions in adaptive start time and failure rates—resulting in Starlink users spending less time waiting for videos to load and experiencing fewer playback issues—as well as enjoying an increase in average video bitrate.
Starlink adoption continues to be shaped by regional demographics and the varying availability of high-speed broadband
The relative penetration of Starlink across Europe (based on analysis of share of Speedtest samples) remains highly varied by country and region, shaped largely by demographics and the profile of available fixed broadband technologies in each market. Highly urbanized countries with a small share of the population living in rural areas, such as the Nordics and the Benelux region, exhibit lower levels of Starlink adoption.
Higher-than-average fiber availability and take-up in these countries (corresponding to a larger share of fixed subscriptions providing download speeds of at least 100 Mbps), combined with the performance declines at higher latitudes closer to polar orbits, mean that Starlink may not be a competitive broadband access solution for a large proportion of the population. Other factors, such as high levels of fixed wireless access (FWA) penetration—offering higher performance at lower prices than Starlink—in countries such as Finland may also contribute to dampening the appeal of LEO services there.
Starlink Adoption is Highest in Southeastern Europe, Moderate in Central and Western Europe and Lowest in Fiber-Rich Nordic and Benelux Regions
Speedtest Intelligence® | Starlink Share (%) of Total Fixed Speedtest Samples in Q4 2024
A corollary is seen in parts of Central and Southern Europe, where Starlink is relatively more competitive as a fixed broadband solution and measured take-up of alternatives like FWA is below the EU average. This is driven by higher Starlink speeds compared to other parts of Europe—particularly in Greece and Croatia—along with the lower-than-average availability of fixed networks offering very high-capacity coverage (as defined by the European Commission for FTTH and DOCSIS 3.1). As a result, Starlink is relatively more competitive in these markets and, in some cases, outperforms terrestrial fixed operators.
The higher proportion of Starlink users in Germany among Europe’s largest economies is likely a consequence of its outdated fixed broadband mix. With some of the lowest FTTH coverage in the EU and higher fixed broadband prices than elsewhere, Starlink adoption may be higher in Germany and present an attractive alternative there despite providing lower speeds than in other parts of the continent.
Notwithstanding these structural patterns, however, not all instances of Starlink adoption fall neatly into line across Europe. As noted earlier with the example of London, some outliers are driven by specific use cases. For instance, London’s relatively high Starlink usage has been partly linked to its utility beyond home broadband and in providing connectivity for events, supporting card terminals and similar applications.
The LEO space race is heating up above Europe
SpaceX’s ambitions for Starlink in Europe extend well beyond traditional broadband. Over the coming year, the company plans to enter the direct-to-device (D2D) market—widely seen as the next frontier in the LEO space race—by connecting unmodified consumer handsets. This effort is being powered by the launch of SpaceX’s Gen2 satellites, of which the company ultimately hopes to deploy tens of thousands.
The company’s success in transforming the economics of large-scale satellite launches has inspired others to make similar moves. Amazon, for example, plans to deploy over a thousand satellites by mid-2026 through its Project Kuiper initiative, which will focus on mid-latitude coverage (lacking the polar-orbits boasted by Starlink). AST SpaceMobile, meanwhile, is targeting the D2D market and already has five satellites in operation. It aims to expand its constellation to more than 240 satellites.
We look forward to monitoring the satellite market as it expands into the D2D space in the coming months, and will return to check up on how Starlink is performing in other regions beyond Europe. For more information about Speedtest Intelligence data and insights, please contact us.
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.
This analysis includes Starlink Net Promoter Score (NPS) data for France, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom, year-over-year data for satellite providers in Europe and Oceania from Q2 2022 to Q2 2023, and new Q2 2023 data from Starlink in Africa.
Starlink users across different continents continue to love the service
Using Speedtest Intelligence®, we examined NPS ratings data for Starlink users against an aggregate of all fixed broadband providers combined.
NPS is based on Speedtest® user responses after being asked how likely they are to recommend their provider to friends or family on a 0 to 10 scale. NPS ratings are categorized into Detractors (score 0-6), Passives (score 7-8), and Promoters (score 9-10), and is calculated as (% Promoters – % Detractors) x 100. Any NPS score above 0 indicates that a provider’s audience is more loyal than not.
As you can see from the above image, Starlink users in France, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, and the U.K. had an NPS score much higher than the aggregate score for all fixed broadband providers combined during Q2 2023. France had the highest NPS among the aggregate of fixed broadband providers for the countries we surveyed at -15.98 and fixed broadband providers had a much faster median download speed at 165.37 Mbps to Starlink’s 107.56 Mbps. In New Zealand there was a similar story with the aggregate of fixed broadband providers having a -20.40 NPS to Starlink’s 48.83, while having a faster median download speed 147.86 Mbps to 113.78 Mbps during Q2 2023.
Germany, which had the lowest NPS rating of aggregate of fixed broadband providers in Europe at -30.10, also had the smallest difference in NPS with Starlink scoring 38.19. Interestingly, the aggregate of fixed broadband providers and Starlink both had similar median download speeds at 83.16 Mbps and 82.56 Mbps, respectively, during Q2 2023.
Of note, Starlink had much higher NPS ratings and median download speeds than the aggregate of all fixed providers combined in Italy and the U.K., respectively, during Q2 2023. Starlink’s NPS was 50.20 to -25.61 for the aggregate of all fixed broadband providers in Italy during Q2 2023, while the median download speeds were 100.68 Mbps to 63.99 Mbps. In the U.K., Starlink’s NPS was 47.18 to -26.88 for the aggregate of all fixed broadband providers combined, with the median download speeds a little closer, 100.11 Mbps to 77.38 Mbps, respectively.
In our last report, we found a wide NPS gap between U.S. rural Starlink users — who often have fewer options for fixed broadband access — and the corresponding aggregate of fixed broadband providers. Given that all five of these countries have rural or remote regions that are underserved or not served by traditional broadband offerings, it may be no surprise that Starlink users who reside in those areas may feel positive about having access to fast broadband internet.
Starlink speeds over 100 Mbps in 14 European countries during Q2 2023, speeds stabilizing across Europe
Key takeaways:
Starlink results were the fastest among satellite providers we surveyed.
Starlink quarter-to-quarter speeds improved or remained about the same (between 5% and -5%) in 23 countries, while decreasing in 4 countries.
Among the 27 European countries we surveyed, Starlink had median download speeds greater than 100 Mbps in 14 countries, greater than 90 Mbps in 20 countries, and greater than 80 in 24 countries, with only three countries failing to reach 70 Mbps.
Skylogic, while delivering speeds slower than Starlink, showed stabilized broadband speeds over the past year for those seeking a Starlink alternative.
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Over the past year, we’ve seen huge developments in the global satellite market, Europe notwithstanding, with Amazon’s Project Kuiper moving forward, the EU creating its own satellite constellation, and OneWeb and Eutelsat merging. While Starlink continues to lead for performance among satellite providers we surveyed, Starlink has experienced some major hurdles over the past year as users flock to the service and speeds have subsequently dipped — but of note those concerns seem to have started allaying in most of Europe during Q2 2023.
At first glance, year-over-year median download speeds for Starlink are about the same (-5% to 5%) or better (greater than 5%) from Q2 2022 to Q2 2023 in 15 countries and slower (decreasing more than 5%) in 8 countries. But among the 27 countries we surveyed during Q2 2023, Starlink had speeds faster than the aggregate of all fixed broadband providers combined in 11 countries (Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Estonia, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, and the U.K.) Those speeds were most notably faster in Croatia and Greece for Starlink at 94.41 Mbps to 45.24 Mbps and 108.97 to 44.09 Mbps, respectively, during Q2 2023. Speeds were about the same in four countries (Finland, Slovenia, Germany, and Lithuania), and speeds were slower than the aggregate of fixed broadband providers in 12 countries, most notably in Poland, Spain, Romania, Denmark, and France which saw between 50% and 105% faster aggregate fixed broadband speeds than Starlink.
Quarterly download speeds stabilizing or improving
Looking at results from Q1 2023 to Q2 2023, median download speeds for Starlink remained about the same (between 5% and -5%) in 23 countries, while decreasing in four countries. That’s a big deal, especially given Starlink had median download speeds greater than 100 Mbps in 14 countries, and greater than 90 Mbps in 20 countries, and greater than 80 in 24 countries — with only three countries failing to reach 70 Mbps.
While trailing Starlink speeds, Skylogic recorded median download speeds in Italy at 29.21 Mbps during Q2 2023, a roughly 27% statistical increase year-over-year from 22.28 Mbps during Q2 2022. Notably, Skylogic recorded a median download speed of 68.44 Mbps in Italy during Q1 2023. Among the various countries we recorded Skylogic data for during the past year, the range of median download speeds varied between 19.53 Mbps and 68.44 Mbps, with most speeds between 28 and 50 Mbps, all fast enough to stream 4K video online. Viasat, had relatively similar download speeds in Germany and Italy at 17.22 Mbps and 17.45 Mbps, respectively, during Q2 2023.
Top 10 fastest Starlink download speeds in European countries
Starlink in Switzerland had one of the fastest median download speed among countries with Starlink during Q2 2023 at 122.47 Mbps, followed by Denmark (117.38 Mbps), Austria (111.91 Mbps), Belgium (111.20 Mbps), Hungary (108.97 Mbps), France (107.56 Mbps), Ireland (104.42 Mbps), Estonia (102.38 Mbps), Portugal (101.75 Mbps), and Latvia (100.94 Mbps). Sweden, Italy, Bulgaria, and the U.K. all followed but had speeds greater than 100 Mbps.
Upload speeds for Starlink are down year over year, but quarterly speeds almost all improved or were about the same
Upload speeds for Starlink mostly decreased notably year over year, with only the U.K. showing an improved median upload speed in Q2 2023 out of 27 countries surveyed. However, looking quarter to quarter, Q2 2023 upload speeds for Starlink stayed about the same or improved in 25 out of 27 countries, with only Greece and Ireland showing declines. For upload speeds, Starlink all 27 countries we surveyed had upload speeds between 10 Mbps and 15 Mbps except Portugal (17.70 Mbps), Hungary (16.91 Mbps), Croatia (16.12 Mbps), Bulgaria (15.93 Mbps), Romania (15.82 Mbps), Spain (15.79 Mbps), and Poland (9.11 Mbps). Starlink in Greece was the only instance of a satellite provider in Europe having an upload speed greater than the aggregate of all fixed providers combined, 12.97 Mbps for Starlink to 7.85 Mbps for the aggregate of fixed broadband providers combined. Skylogic showed upload speeds lower than 4 Mbps in both Austria and Italy during Q2 2023. Viasat had upload speeds of 3.51 Mbps in Germany and 4.69 Mbps in Italy during Q2 2023.
Multi-server latency is stabilizing for Starlink users across Europe
As an low-earth orbiting (LEO) satellite internet provider, Starlink has a leg up on some satellite competitors who rely on further away geosynchronous-earth orbit (GEO) and medium-earth orbit (MEO) satellite constellations. However, once again, all the aggregates of all fixed broadband providers in Europe had much lower multi-server latencies than Starlink, Viasat (which had latencies over 600 ms) and Skylogic (which had latencies over 700 ms). That being said, Starlink still saw multi-server latencies under 60 ms in the U.K. (51.26 ms), Spain (53.37 ms), Portugal (55.84 ms), and Belgium (59.34 ms). Starlink saw most countries’ multi-server latencies between 60 and 90 ms.
Starlink speeds stabilize in Oceania
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Oceania, the second least densely populated continent in the world to Antarctica, has rural and remote populations that benefit from (and even rely on) satellite internet connections. Luckily for rural and remote Starlink users, they’ve probably seen a good amount of stability over the past year with Q2 2023 median download speeds in New Zealand at 113.78 Mbps (105.99 Mbps in Q2 2022) and Australia at 104.92 Mbps (102.76 Mbps in Q2 2022). Tonga, which is very remote, saw download speeds drop from 45.25 Mbps in Q2 2022 to 37.95 Mbps in Q2 2023.
Upload speeds also showed some stability with Australia going from 10.45 Mbps in Q2 2022 to 11.33 Mbps during Q2 2023 and New Zealand going from 12.31 Mbps to 14.62 during the same time period. Tonga saw a notable drop in speeds year over year from 19.26 Mbps in Q2 2022 to 6.66 Mbps Q2 2023.
Multi-server latency, which usually will be higher for satellite internet options, showed promising results for Starlink in Oceania during Q2 2023. Multi-server latency dropped noticeably in New Zealand year over year, going from 89.38 ms in Q2 2022 to 46.42 ms in Q2 2023. Australia saw a more modest drop with multi-server latency going from 63.04 ms to 59.78 ms from Q2 2022 to Q2 2023. Tonga saw an increase in multi-server latency from 125.24 ms to 137.16 ms during the same time period.
Starlink in Africa is off to a promising start
Starlink, which first launched on the African continent in Nigeria this past January, is showing intriguing early results. Speedtest Intelligence showed that Starlink in Nigeria had a faster median download speeds than all aggregate fixed broadband providers combined at 63.69 Mbps to 15.60 Mbps during Q2 2023. Upload speeds were more similar during the same time period with Starlink at 13.72 Mbps and the aggregate of all fixed broadband providers combined at 10.60 Mbps. Starlink did have a marginally higher multi-server latency at 55.88 ms to 50.26 ms during Q2 2023.
In Rwanda, median download speeds were a little closer with Starlink recording a median download speed at 63.10 Mbps in Q2 2023 compared to the aggregate of all fixed broadband providers combined at 34.55 Mbps. Starlink trailed behind for median upload speed at 6.88 Mbps to 10.05 Mbps for fixed broadband providers during Q2 2023. Multi-server latency for Starlink was much higher at 320.45 ms to 29.04 ms for fixed broadband providers during the same time period.
The 2023 space revolution is off to a huge start
Here are some major updates about what’s next for various different satellite competitors:
After delays, Amazon’s Project Kuiper aim to launch prototype satellites this fall
China’s grand ambitions to provide internet connectivity to over 362 million people
According to the Wall Street Journal, over 362 million people in China don’t have access to the internet — which is about 1 in every 4 people in China, a large portion of which live in rural or remote communities. In order to overcome that connectivity gap, China is looking to the sky to create its own satellite constellation with potentially over 12,000 satellites. China’s biggest gap seems to be with recreating the success of SpaceX’s reusable rockets — however, initial tests are far underway and a host of reusable rockets are slated for test launches in 2024.
SpaceX’s Starlink service offerings are about to rapidly expand
While Starlink continues to lead among satellite providers in most areas of the world, their expansion is only starting. Looking at the Starlink availability map, Starlink has an incredibly busy rest of 2023 and 2024 in Africa, Asia, and South America — and they’re marking their intent to expand into most of the world. That comes as Starlink marked launching over 5,000 satellites into space at the end of August. With some wiley entrepreneurs already renting out their Starlink “Dishy McFlatfaces” to vacationers and campers for $25-30 dollars a day, satellite connectivity is truly becoming a full-time gig.
Viasat’s bad luck might affect entire industry
Viasat launched the first of its three long-awaited Viasat-3 arrays — but then their first satellite suffered an antenna anomaly, which prevented a large reflector to deploy that affects whether or not the satellite can operate as intended. While Viasat is rushing to solve the issue, this could ultimately trigger a $420 million insure claim for the loss of the $700 million satellite. With such a high-value loss, this could send ripples through the satellite industry, causing insurance premiums to skyrocket for companies looking to mitigate potential losses through insurance. All of this comes on the heels of acquiring Inmarsat in May for $7.3 billion to expand its satellite arrays and spectrum holdings. We’ll be watching to see whether or not Viasat can find a solution.
Eutelsat and OneWeb merger imminent, big moves abound
The Eutelsat and OneWeb merger should make competitors take notice — combining satellite networks, expanding enterprise offerings, and competing in emerging markets has big revenue potential — with OneWeb having an already established LEO network of 630 satellites and Eutelsat offering 36 GEO satellites. Of note, OneWeb recently inked a deal with Telstra in Australia to provide satellite backhaul for locations “where satellite backhaul is a preferred or only viable option.” OneWeb is also partnering with the European Space Agency to develop a next-gen 5G beam-hopping satellite, which could quickly increase connectivity for people traveling or for disaster areas that need emergency connectivity. Shareholders are set to vote on approving the merger on Sept. 28.
European Union greenlights multi-orbit constellation
HughesNet aiming to launch Jupiter 3 array in Q2 2023
HughesNet successfully launched its Jupiter 3 array on July 29, which aims to provide U.S. and Latin America consumers with higher broadband download speeds. While the actual satellite will take some time to reach its geosynchronous orbit and deploy, this satellite adds 500 Gbps of Ka-band capacity for HughesNet, which could see consumers reaching download speeds between 50 Mbps and 100 Mbps. We’ll be eagerly awaiting Speedtest® results from HughesNet’s Jupiter 3 array.
Ookla will continue monitoring new satellite internet developments
2023 continues to be an important year for satellite internet providers. Satellite connectivity is something we’ll be watching closely and we’ll continue our series next quarter with Q3 2023 data from select continents including North America. 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 results.
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 telecoms industry continues to watch SpaceX Starlink’s expansion and performance closely, as the number of subscribers to its broadband service grows and other satellite providers enter the fray. While median download performance remains a key benchmark, we see strong demand to understand how Starlink is balancing net new additions with its network capacity as the service scales, and how LEO NTN (Non-Terrestrial Network) performance stacks up against the competition, particularly in rural locations.
Key takeaways
Starlink isn’t shooting for the stars, but is successfully managing to balance capacity and demand. Starlink median download performance in the U.S. was 64.54 Mbps in Q3 2023, a marginal decline quarter on quarter, though Starlink did show strong increases in September, October and November.
Starlink’s U.S. LEO broadband performance eclipses that of GEO satellite internet providers. Starlink offers a significant boost on GEO satellite broadband speeds, but its multi-server latency is where Starlink really shines, eclipsing the performance of GEO satellite services in the U.S.
Starlink’s performance in rural U.S. locations orbits at a similar level to the competition. While it can’t match leading cable or fiber providers on median speeds or multi-server latency, Starlink offers a very viable alternative in locations where cable and fiber access networks aren’t present. A big part of this is due to a more uniform distribution of download performance across Speedtest samples, compared to FWA and DSL-based services where distance from the cell site or exchange/DSLAM impacts performance.
The constellation of Speedtest Starlink samples highlights significant urban LEO broadband demand. While still skewing towards rural locations if we adjust for population, 16.1% of Speedtest Starlink samples were recorded in urban locations in the U.S. The ability to sign up to Starlink’s “Roam” services which allow users to take Starlink with them (with options for use across the U.S. and internationally) may inflate the number of urban samples, but given their scale, it’s clear that LEO satellite internet is seen as a viable option in many urban U.S. locations.
Starlink continues to balance capacity and demand
SpaceX’s Starlink satellite/NTN service continues to expand at pace, with over 5,000 LEO satellites in orbit, with plans to increase this to 42,000 over the long term, and customer numbers approximately doubling in the first nine months of 2023, exceeding 2 million. Last quarter we covered Starlink’s performance across Europe and Oceania, where in a majority of cases it recorded download performance gains quarter-on-quarter, indicating the capacity it continues to add through new satellite launches is offsetting the demand for bandwidth from net customer additions.
In the U.S. the picture is more mixed. Ookla Speedtest Intelligence data shows Starlink recorded a median download speed of 64.54 Mbps in Q3 2023, a marginal decline quarter-on-quarter, but still an increase over the 53.00 Mbps it recorded in Q3 2022. Median upload performance continues to track upwards, hitting 9.72 Mbps, while median multi-server latency reached a low of 60 ms. Looking at monthly data shows Starlink has increased performance from August this year onwards, following declines in June and July, and recorded a high of 79.04 Mbps in November.
The FCC recently announced that it is seeking input on a planned increase to its definition of broadband/high speed internet, to 100 Mbps download and 20 Mbps upload, up from the current 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload. At present, this would place Starlink and the technology provided by a number of other broadband providers at risk of missing the grade.
Starlink U.S. Performance
Speedtest Intelligence® | November 2022 – November 2023
LEO satellite broadband eclipses GEO but compares less favorably to terrestrial options
It’s important to consider how far satellite internet has progressed with the arrival of Starlink, and with other LEO satellite providers entering the fray, competition is set to increase. GEO satellite service providers HughesNet and Viasat lag behind most of the market, recording median download speeds in the U.S. of 15.87 Mbps and 34.72 Mbps, respectively, in Q3 2023. Viasat’s download performance placed it alongside AT&T Internet (which comprises a mix of DSL- and FWA-based access technologies, but excludes its fiber service). GEO satellite internet service really suffers on network latency, with median multi-server latency well above 500 ms for both providers. It must be noted that GEO satellite internet service is often priced at a discount to LEO satellite internet, and its performance characteristics lend it to different use cases where low latency isn’t a requirement, in remote locations, or as a back-up service option.
Network Performance for Major Terrestrial and NTN players in the U.S.
Speedtest Intelligence® | Q3 2023
Starlink’s LEO satellite service median download performance improves upon the GEO providers, placing it alongside CenturyLink (which offers DSL and fiber-based broadband), and just behind T-Mobile’s broadband service, which is based on a mix of 4G and 5G Fixed-Wireless Access (FWA). However, despite this improvement, LEO satellite service lags well behind leading terrestrial broadband networks from U.S. cable operators such as Cox, Spectrum (Charter) and Xfinity (Comcast). LEO service does, however, offer a step-change in latency performance over GEO, recording 60 ms in Q3 2023, placing it ahead of T-Mobile (63 ms).
LEO is narrowing the performance gap in rural locations
In rural locations in the U.S., Starlink competes more favorably with its peers, both in terms of median download speeds and when we look at the range of speeds for users experiencing below median performance – indicating more stable performance across its user base.
Starlink’s primary use case is in providing connectivity to more rural locations where it’s either not economically viable for terrestrial networks to be deployed or to be upgraded with the latest technology. Starlink’s performance in rural U.S. locations stacks up even more strongly against the competition, with median download performance of 65.77 Mbps, up on its national median value, placing it almost level with T-Mobile, and ahead of Verizon. When we look at the 25th percentile of its download speed range (speeds that 75% of Starlink Speedtest samples exceed), we see it overtake both T-Mobile and Frontier, indicating its performance is more stable across the lower range of speeds its users experience. It is worth noting that fiber and cable services are not available nationwide, and therefore in many rural locations the choice may often be between a DSL or FWA based internet service, or satellite.
Rural U.S. Network Performance – Major Terrestrial vs NTN players
Speedtest Intelligence® | Q3 2023
Starlink’s appeal is broader, with strong urban-based usage
While perceived primarily as a rural internet service, Ookla Speedtest data shows a considerable proportion of Starlink samples located within urban U.S. locations. Our data for GEO satellite internet providers shows that 0% of HughesNet samples came from urban locations, while Viasat recorded 36.7%. Starlink recorded 16.1% of samples in urban locations.
Rural U.S. Share of Speedtest Samples by ISP
Speedtest Intelligence® | Q3 2023
When you consider that 80% of the US population is based in urban locations (as per the 2020 Census), it’s clear that satellite broadband service still skews towards rural locations, but it also has broad applicability in urban locations. Starlink has added options to its service to allow users to roam (both within a market and internationally), and this portability of its service may explain some of the urban-based Speedtest samples – from rural-based users moving into urban locations, and urban-based users who value the ability to take Starlink with them, and in some cases use it as a redundancy option to their existing broadband subscription.
The scale of the number of samples, however, indicates LEO satellite internet is a viable option for many urban-based U.S. broadband subscribers. If Starlink can continue to balance capacity and demand to drive overall performance gains, while continuing to address the affordability of its service, then this wider addressable market should enable Starlink to sustain the strong subscriber growth it has witnessed to date. We’ll return in Q1 2024 to continue our quarterly NTN analysis. Please contact us if you’d like to know more about Speedtest Intelligence data and insights.
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.
