Luke Kehoe | February 25, 2026

Repeated Storms Test Portugal's Network Resilience and Spotlight the Role of Satellite Connectivity

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 declines and 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.

About the author

Luke Kehoe

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.

Linkedin /luke-kehoe

Ookla Research™ Articles

Mike Dano | February 4, 2026

2025 Global Satellite Broadband Performance Report

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.

Starlink's Latency Shows Improvements
Speedtest Intelligence | Q3 2025

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 surveys by 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.

About the author

Mike Dano

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 Research™ Articles

Kerry Baker | June 30, 2025

Starlink Elevates In-Flight Wi-Fi Performance

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

Airline In-Flight Wi-Fi Performance – Download / Upload / Latency

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, Eutelsat OneWeb), 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.

Connectivity Service Provider In-Flight Wi-Fi Performance – Download / Upload / Latency

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.

About the author

Kerry Baker

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.

Linkedin /kerry-wm-baker

Ookla Research™ Articles

Mike Dano | October 16, 2025

There's Growing Interest in T-Mobile's Starlink Satellite Service

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:

Map of Los Angeles County 5G Median Signal Strength: Pool and No Signals, All Providers, where dBm is -107 or worse), Speedtest Insights® | Q3 2025

Map of Los Angeles County 4G Median Signal Strength: Pool and No Signals, All Providers, where dBm is -107 or worse), Speedtest Insights® | Q3 2025

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.”

About the author

Mike Dano

Ookla Research™ Articles

Mike Dano | November 24, 2025

Starlink Ignites Internet Fiesta in Rural Latin America

SpaceX’s satellite internet service is showing growth throughout Latin America, just as other companies ramp up alternatives.

Spanish/Español

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.

To find out more about Speedtest Intelligence® data and insights, visit our website.

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.

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.

About the author

Mike Dano

Ookla Research™ Articles

Sue Marek | October 27, 2025

U.S. Broadband Speeds on the Uptick, Digital Divide Narrows

A new Ookla report found that the digital divide has narrowed in 33 states during the first half of 2025.

Key Takeaways

The number of states with 60% or more of Speedtest users experiencing the FCC’s minimum standard for fixed broadband speeds of 100 Mbps downstream and 20 Mbps upstream jumped from 22 states and the District of Columbia in the 2H of 2024 to 38 states and the District of Columbia in 1H of 2025.
The digital divide between urban and rural users improved in the first half of 2025 with 33 states seeing the gap between the percentage of fixed urban users and fixed rural users that receive the minimum required FCC broadband speeds lessen during that time while 17 states saw that gap grow in the first half of 2025 compared to the second half of 2024. Ookla uses the Census Bureau’s urban-rural classification to determine which users are urban vs. rural.
The digital divide doesn’t exist for many Starlink users. In 26 out of the 50 states and the District of Columbia, rural users get better broadband speeds than their urban counterparts. This is likely due to Starlink’s ability to overcome the geographic and cost barriers that make delivering fixed rural broadband so difficult.

U.S. broadband speeds are on the uptick, and more users are getting better performance than ever from their broadband connectivity. However, there are still some states (particularly those with lower population density and vast terrain) that are struggling to deliver broadband services to their residents.

Ookla Speedtest Intelligence® data found that the number of states that are able to deliver fixed broadband services (fiber, cable and DSL) to the minimum standard of broadband speeds (100 Mbps download and 20 Mbps upload) to 60% or more of Speedtest users in their state grew dramatically from 22 states and the District of Columbia in the second half of 2024 to 38 states and the District of Columbia in the first half of 2025.

In addition, there are now five states—Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey, North Dakota and Rhode Island —delivering speeds of 100/20 Mbps to more than 70% of their users.

Not only are broadband speeds improving, Speedtest data from the first half of 2025 also revealed that 33 states narrowed the gap between how many rural users vs. urban users were able to achieve the FCC’s minimum broadband speeds of 100/20 Mbps.

This is a fairly dramatic turnaround from the second half of 2024 when Speedtest data showed that 32 states had increased their digital divide instead of decreasing it. Ookla uses the Census Bureau’s urban-rural classification to determine which users are urban vs. rural.

South Dakota No. 1 in Starlink-delivered broadband speeds

As a result of NTIA’s June decision to allow other technologies such as LEO satellites to compete for BEAD funding, at least 32 states and territories have decided to include LEO satellite systems in their final proposals (not all final BEAD proposals have been submitted as some states received extensions). While many states are still prioritizing fiber, LEO services such as SpaceX’s Starlink and Amazon’s Kuiper are appearing in many of the revised proposals.

We looked at Speedtest data on SpaceX’s Starlink service in every state and the District of Columbia to see what percentage of Starlink users received the FCC’s minimum standard for broadband of 100/20 Mbps. South Dakota is the No. 1 state with 37.1% of Starlink users getting access to 100/20 Mbps speeds followed by Maine with 35.3% of users and Wyoming with 34.5% of users.

Download the full report

To find your state’s standing and how it compares to the rest of the country in broadband connectivity, download this free report here.

About the author

Sue Marek

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.

Ookla Research™ Articles

Sue Marek | November 17, 2025

WISP Report Card: Data Shows Most Fail FCC’s 100/20 Mbps Benchmark

Wireless ISPs face a growing threat from LEO satellite providers like Starlink that can reach rural users with faster download speeds.

There are around 2,000 U.S. wireless internet service providers (WISPs) and about nine million Americans get their internet service from these companies, according to the Wireless ISP Association (WISPA). Many of these WISPs are very small and provide service to just a few hundred customers.

WISPs have become more prevalent over the past few years largely due to the introduction of vendor equipment that makes it possible to more cost-effectively deliver better coverage using unlicensed spectrum and commercial off-the-shelf hardware.

WISPs deliver their services using fixed wireless access (FWA) but they tend to be smaller and focused on certain markets such as rural areas or apartment complexes than the large telcos like Verizon, T-Mobile or AT&T, which also use FWA technology to deliver broadband services across the country. However, unlike the WISPs, these operators don’t consider broadband to be their primary business.

Using Ookla’s Speedtest Intelligence® data, we examined the performance of eight of the larger U.S. WISPs—Etheric Networks, GeoLinks, NextLink Internet, Resound Networks, Rise Broadband, Starry, Unwired Broadband, and Wisper Internet — from Q1 2021 through Q2 2025. For those providers that offer both FWA and fiber, we categorized users with upload speeds under 100 Mbps as FWA customers to distinguish them from fiber users. While all eight of the WISPs that we monitored improved their median download speeds during that time period, their performance varies greatly.

Key Takeaways

Starry, which is being acquired by Verizon, delivered the highest median download speeds (202.25 Mbps in Q2 2025) of all eight U.S. WISPs that we studied.
GeoLinks delivered the slowest median download speeds (22.74 Mbps in Q2 2025) of the WISPs we reviewed. Its users in the 75th percentile (those in the upper end of the typical speed range) experienced download speeds of 56.58 Mbps in Q2 2025. We measured GeoLinks customers in its California markets where the company currently uses an older platform on 5 GHz spectrum.
Because of Starry’s faster speeds, the WISP was able to deliver the FCC’s minimum requirement for broadband speeds of 100/20 Mbps to 66.88% of Speedtest users in Q2 2025.
WISPs face a growing threat from low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite providers like Starlink, which can reach rural users with download speeds that are often faster than WISPs.
To continue to compete in the broadband space, WISPs need to find ways to secure more spectrum to avoid network congestion and interference.

The Many Flavors of WISPs

The performance of WISPs in the U.S. is under scrutiny right now because of recent changes that the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) made to the Broadband Equity and Deployment (BEAD) program. In June 2025 the NTIA revamped BEAD to provide a technology-neutral approach and prioritize cost-per-location.This means that instead of favoring fiber, other technologies such as low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite and FWA can compete with fiber for BEAD funding. The revisions also include a rule to ensure that bids go to the lowest-cost bidders.

States revised their BEAD applications and re-submitted them using the new guidance. Early indications are that many states plan to use FWA for at least a portion of their BEAD eligible locations. Connected Nation, a non-profit that monitors the digital divide, found that states have awarded 11.7% of eligible locations to FWA providers, and many of those FWA providers are categorized as wireless ISPs (WISPs).

We analyzed the performance of eight of the largest U.S. WISPs over several quarters from Q1 2021 until Q2 2025. However, it’s important to note that all of these companies vary greatly in terms of their spectrum holdings, their business models, their coverage areas, and their vendor equipment, which drives a large variance in performance outcomes.

Nevertheless, it’s notable that all eight of the WISPs we monitored improved their median download speeds during that time period. They also improved their median upload speeds, but to a much lesser extent.

Starry outpaced all the others and recorded the highest median download speeds. In Q2 2025 Starry’s median download speed was 202.25 Mbps, which is more than double that of the Resound Networks with a median download speed of 99.41 Mbps in Q2 2025. Starry also was nearly nine times higher in median download speeds than the slowest of the eight WISPs, GeoLinks, which had a median download speed of just 22.74 Mbps in Q2 2025.

A Comparison of WISPs Median Download and Upload Speeds
Q1 2021 through Q2 2025
A comparison of WISPs median download and upload speed over time.

The eight WISPs and their coverage areas

Name	States where WISP operates	Spectrum used
Etheric Networks	California	2.4 MHz, 5.8 GHz unlicensed and 28 GHz licensed
GeoLinks	California, Arizona, and Nevada	unlicensed 5 GHz, LMDS 29-31 GHz spectrum, unlicensed 59-71 GHz spectrum
NextLink	Texas, Oklahoma, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, and Nebraska	2.4 MHz, 5 GHz, and 6 GHz
Resound Networks	Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kansas	6 GHz unlicensed, 5 GHz unlicensed, and 3.65 GHz licensed
Rise Broadband	16 states including Colorado, Nebraska, Illinois, Iowa, Texas and Southern Wisconsin	unlicensed 5 GHz, unlicensed 3.65 GHz, licensed 2.5 GHz, and some TV white space spectrum at 470-698 MHz
Starry Broadband	Major cities such as Boston, Denver, Los Angeles, New York City and Washington, DC	37 GHz licensed, 24 GHz licensed, some 5 GHz unlicensed
Unwired Broadband	California	unlicensed 6 GHz
Wisper Wireless	Oklahoma, Kansas, Indiana, and Illinois	3.5 GHz (CBRS), 5.1 GHz, and maybe 6 GHz

Most WISPs struggle to deliver the FCC’s minimum broadband speeds to their customers

All of the eight WISPs use a different configuration of spectrum licenses. Most are reliant upon some combination of low-, mid-, or high-band licensed and unlicensed spectrum. In addition, many have deployed fiber either as an alternative to their FWA service or to use to carry backhaul or middle-mile traffic.

While using unlicensed spectrum means that a WISP can launch services quickly without having to purchase costly spectrum licenses, it also means that congestion and interference can result in the WISP having to carefully manage demand for their services.

Using Speedtest data collected in Q2 2025 we compared the median download and upload speeds of the eight WISPs to determine what percentage of their Speedtest users were receiving the FCC’s minimum standard for fixed broadband speeds (100 Mbps downstream/20 Mbps upstream).

Starry, which has mmWave spectrum licenses and uses proprietary equipment, is able to provide the FCC’s minimum standard for broadband to the highest percentage of users at 66.9%. In contrast Rise Broadband, which primarily operates with unlicensed spectrum in the 5 GHz band and in the 3.55 GHz to 3.7 GHz bands (CBRS), but also uses some licensed spectrum in the 2.5 GHz band, is able to provide the FCC’s minimum requirement for broadband to just 6.7% of its users.

WISPs	% of Speedtest users achieving wireless broadband speeds of 100/20 Mbps
Starry	66.9%
Resound Networks	41.5%
Wisper Internet	26.0%
NextLink	24.4%
Unwired	21.8%
GeoLinks	8.7%
Etheric	8.4%
Rise Broadband	6.7%

mmWave’s bigger pipe doesn’t always equal faster speeds

Starry, GeoLinks and Etheric all use some combination of high-band spectrum to deliver their FWA services. The benefits of this spectrum is it can deliver faster speeds and carry bandwidth-intensive applications. But it also requires line-of-sight or near-line-of-sight to work because of potential interference from buildings, trees, and even rain.

Among the three providers that use mmWave spectrum we saw dramatic differences with Starry significantly outperforming GeoLinks and Etheric, which suggest that Starry has a greater penetration of mmWave spectrum among its customer base that is benefitting the WISP.

Starry

Starry uses a proprietary technology with base stations that cover a radius of about one mile and its system operates on shared spectrum licenses in the 37.1, 37.3 and 37.5 GHz mmWave bands. It also acquired 104 licenses in the 24 GHz band that cover 51 partial economic areas.

The company targets large apartment buildings with its service. Its setup consists of a rooftop base station that broadcasts a signal to multiple building-mounted receivers, allowing a single base station to serve dozens of buildings. Although it uses proprietary equipment it’s based upon modified 802.11ac/ax standards that takes advantage of the Wi-Fi chipset ecosystem.

The company, which is currently being acquired by Verizon, offers service to about 100,000 subscribers in apartment buildings in five markets; Boston, Denver, Los Angeles, New York/New Jersey, and Washington, D.C./Virginia.

Starry offers a variety of rate plans: $30 per month for up to 200 Mbps; $55 per month for up to 500 Mbps; and $75 per month for up to 1 Gbps.

Ookla’s Speedtest® data shows that Starry has nearly doubled its median download speeds in its markets from 102.74 Mbps in Q1 2022 to 202.25 Mbps in Q2 2025. The company’s upload speed also increased, but not as dramatically from 52.29 Mbps in Q1 2022 to 54.34 Mbps in Q2 2025. The company saw the biggest increase in speeds from Q1 2024 to Q2 2025, which is likely due to some network upgrades, including the deployment of the 2.0 version of its Comet receiver. Starry said the upgrades would expand its coverage range as well as provide better spectral efficiency.

Starry's Median Download, 75th Percentile Download, and Median Upload Speeds
Q1 2021 through Q2 2025
Starry's median download, median upload and 75th percentile speeds over time.

GeoLinks

GeoLinks uses local multipoint distribution services (LMDS) spectrum that it acquired from Verizon in 2021 as well as some unlicensed 5 GHz and unlicensed 59-61 GHz spectrum. Those 208 LMDS licenses are in the 29/31 GHz bands and cover several markets. However, GeoLinks currently offers service primarily in California and has a few deployments in Arizona and Nevada, but our Speedtest data samples were all collected from the company’s California deployment where it is currently using the unlicensed 5 GHz spectrum and an older platform..

The company recently tested Intracom Telecom’s point-to-multipoint equipment to demonstrate multi-gigabit FWA using its 29/31GHz mmWave spectrum. In addition, it has indicated that it is interested in leasing its spectrum to other enterprises and operators that can then use its spectrum holdings to develop their own FWA services.

GeoLinks offers a variety of price plans: $25.99 per month for speeds of 10/10 Mbps; $38.99 per month for 25/10 Mbps; $45.99 per month for 30/30 Mbps; and $69.99 per month for speeds of 100/25 Mbps. The company’s web site indicates that the $45.99 per month plan that delivers 30/30 Mbps is the most popular plan with its customers.

Speedtest data shows Geolinks delivering median download speeds of just 22.74 Mbps in Q2 2025 with 75th percentile download speeds of 56.58 Mbps. Its users experience median upload speeds of 19.82 Mbps in Q2 2025.

GeoLink's Median Download, 75th Percentile Download, and Median Upload Speeds
Q1 2021 through Q2 2025
GeoLink's median download, median upload and 75th percentile speeds over time.

Etheric Networks

Etheric Networks provides FWA service to the California Bay Area. The company has a fiber ring stretching from San Francisco to Monterey, California that connects its FWA towers and eight data centers. Etheric uses a mix of spectrum including unlicensed 2.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz spectrum. However, in 2024 Etheric partnered with BroadbandOne to leverage BroadbandOne’s 28 GHz mmWave spectrum. The company said this partnership will allow it to enhance its connectivity and serve more rural and agricultural areas.

The company offers three residential price plans: $79 per month for speeds up to 100 Mbps; $99 per month for speeds up to 250 Mbps and $169 per month for 1 Gbps speeds.

Speedtest data shows Etheric has nearly doubled its median download speeds from 21.34 Mbps in Q1 2021 to 41.09 Mbps in Q2 2025. Its users in the 75th percentile (those in the upper end of the typical speed range) saw speeds of 65.45 Mbps in Q2 2025.The company’s median upload speeds also increased over time from 13.6 Mbps in Q1 2021 to 29.5 Mbps in Q2 2025.

Etheric Networks' Median Download, 75th Percentile Download, and Median Upload Speeds
Q1 2021 through Q2 2025
Etheric Networks' median download, median upload and 75th percentile speeds over time.

WISPs make the most of mid-band with CBRS licenses

Many WISPs take advantage of the mid-band CBRS spectrum, which is a 150 MHz shared spectrum in the 3.5 GHz to 3.7 GHz band that allows for flexible use by three different groups that are managed by a Spectrum Access System (SAS). The SAS can dynamically grant access to different users. The band is shared by these three parties: incumbent users such as the U.S. Navy that have priority access to the band; licensed users with Priority Access Licenses (PAL) that have exclusive use of a portion of the band in a specific geographic location; and the General Authorized Access (GAA) group who can access the spectrum but have no protection from interference from the other two groups.

Several of the WISPs we analyzed deploy their services in the CBRS spectrum and primarily use the GAA portion of the band. Others have acquired CBRS PAL and some use a combination of both. Some WISPS also use unlicensed bands such as 5 GHz.

NextLink

Nextlink spent $28.4 million in FCC’s Auction 105 to purchase over 1,100 CBRS PAL licenses covering 491 counties in eleven states including Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Indiana, Wyoming, and Missouri. The company uses that spectrum to deliver its FWA service to its more than 100,000 subscribers (as of August 2025). NextLink also has deployed fiber to more than 100,000 locations and has 20,000 fiber customers.

Nextlink secured Connect America Fund II funding and participated in the FCC’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund so much of its FWA expansion has been driven by those commitments. In August Nextlink said it has completed five of the six states as part of its CAF II funding and is halfway through its RDOF buildout.

The company offers a variety of FWA plans: The Next50, which offers up to 50 Mbps speeds for $30 per month; the Next100 that offers speeds up to 100 Mbps for $40 per month; The Next300 that offers speeds up to 300 Mbps for $60 per month; and the Next500 that offers speeds up to 500 Mbps for $75 per month.

Speedtest data shows NextLink has more than tripled its median download speeds from 19.45 Mbps in Q1 2021 to 68.47 Mbps in Q2 2025. The WISP also increased its median upload speeds significantly from 4.72 Mbps in Q1 2021 to 18.26 Mbps in Q2 2025. NextLink users in the 75th percentile (those in the upper end of the typical speed range) get much higher speeds of 122.88 Mbps in Q2 2025.

NextLink's Median Download, 75th Percentile Download, and Median Upload Speeds
Q1 2021 through Q2 2025
NextLink's median download, median upload and 75th percentile speeds over time.

Resound Networks

Resound Networks provides FWA service in Texas, New Mexico, Arkansas, Arizona and Oklahoma and uses Tarana Wireless gear in the unlicensed 5 GHz and 6 GHz spectrum bands. It also offers fiber service in some locations and is planning to expand its fiber footprint. Like many WISPs, Resound is focused specifically on rural communities that have historically been overlooked by larger ISPs. In 2022 the company was awarded $303 million through the FCC’s RDOF program to deliver FWA and fiber to 214,000 rural locations.

Resound offers both residential and enterprise rate plans. Its residential plans start at 75 Mbps for $55 per month and go up to 1 Gbps for $130 per month.

The company’s customers experienced a steady increase in their download and upload speeds from mid-2023 until Q2 2025 from a median download speed of 38.94 Mbps in Q3 2023 to 99.41 Mbps in Q2 2025. Its users in the 75th percentile (those in the upper end of the typical speed range) experienced an even greater climb in download speeds from 62.99 Mbps in Q3 2023 to 190.76 Mbps in Q2 2025. During this time period Resound was expanding its network.

Resound Network's Median Download, 75th Percentile Download, and Median Upload Speeds
Q1 2021 through Q2 2025
Resound's median download, median upload and 75th percentile speeds over time.

Rise Broadband

Rise Broadband claims to be the country’s largest WISP with around 200,000 customers. It may also be one of the longest living WISPs because it dates back to 2006 when it started as JAB Broadband and its goal was to consolidate many of the country’s smaller WISPs to create one big WISP with a large footprint.

Today Rise offers FWA service in16 states, mostly in the Midwest. Rise offers service primarily in rural areas and it uses a mix of unlicensed spectrum in the 5 GHz band and in the 3.55 GHz to 3.7 GHz bands (CBRS), but also uses some licensed spectrum in the 2.5 GHz band, to deliver its service.

Like NextLink, the company is actively deploying fiber in addition to FWA. The company’s strategy is to deploy FWA initially to capture market share and then roll out fiber to the densest FWA coverage areas.

Rise’s price plans start as low as $30 per month for 50 Mbps and reach up to 400 Mbps for $55 per month.

Rise users logged median download speeds of 42.58 Mbps in Q2 2025, which is a significant jump from Q1 2021 when users experienced median download speeds of just 16.01 Mbps. Rise’s users in the 75th percentile (those in the upper end of the typical speed range) were able to achieve download speeds of 65.97 Mbps in Q2 2025. The company’s median upload speeds also increased from 4.05 Mbps in Q1 2021 to 18.38 Mbps Q2 2025. Rise saw a big jump in median upload speeds between Q2 2022 when users logged median upload speeds of 5.86 Mbps and Q3 2022 when users experienced median upload speeds of 13.68 Mbps.

Rise Broadband's Median Download, 75th Percentile Download, and Median Upload Speeds
Q1 2021 through Q2 2025
Rise Broadband's median download, median upload and 75th percentile speeds over time.

Wisper Internet

Wisper Internet offers FWA in six midwestern states including Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Indiana. The company uses unlicensed spectrum in the 5 GHz, and a mix of unlicensed and licensed spectrum in the 2.5 GHz and 3.65 GHz bands. Like NextLink and Rise, the company also has deployed fiber in a few select areas.

Wisper offers a variety of rate plans including 25 Mbps for $70 per month; 50 Mbps for $75 per month; 100 Mbps for $80 per month; 200 Mbps for $110 per month and 400 Mbps for $140 per month.

Similar to the other WISPs, Wisper’s median download speeds increased over time but it increased dramatically from Q3 2023 to Q2 2025 when its median download speeds increased from 33.74 Mbps to 52.90 Mbps. Likewise, the download speeds for users in the 75th percentile also increased, climbing from 55.12 Mbps in Q3 2023 to 107.90 Mbps in Q2 2025. This jump in speeds was likely due to Wisper’s deployment of additional FWA gear from Tarana Wireless on 180 more towers in its footprint.

Wisper Internet's Median Download, 75th Percentile Download, and Median Upload Speeds
Q1 2021 through Q2 2025
Wisper Internet's median download, median upload and 75th percentile speeds over time.

Unwired

Unwired Broadband provides FWA coverage in rural and underserved areas in central and northern California. The company said it has a network of more than 200 towers and a coverage area of about 17,000 square miles. Besides FWA, Unwired also provides some fiber service but It’s early in its deployment process.

Unwired uses a combination of licensed and unlicensed spectrum to deliver its FWA service, including the licensed 2.5 GHz band and the unlicensed 6 GHz band.

The company offers both business and residential FWA service and its pricing starts at $59.99 per month for 100 Mbps.

Unwired users experienced increases in download and upload speeds over time but between Q3 2024 and Q4 2024 the jump was more dramatic. Median download speeds jumped from 27.22 Mbps in Q3 to 44.25 Mbps in Q4. Similarly median upload speeds increased from 9.7 Mbps in Q3 2024 to 15.9 Mbps in Q4.

Unwired's Median Download, 75th Percentile Download, and Median Upload Speeds
Q1 2021 through Q2 2025
Unwired's median download, median upload and 75th percentile speeds over time.

WISPs’ performance is improving but competitive threats lurk

Although the WISPs we studied are improving their networks and delivering better performance for their customers, the broadband market is rapidly changing. In the past many WISPs, particularly those in rural areas, faced little or no competition. But that’s no longer the case.

As LEO satellite constellations such as Starlink become more powerful and more prevalent (Amazon’s Kuiper now has 153 satellites in orbit and is expected to launch late this year), WISPs will face growing competition from these companies.

A recent Ookla report on Starlink found that Starlink’s network saw its median download speeds nearly double from 53.95 Mbps in Q3 2022 to 104.71 Mbps in Q1 2025, making its median download speeds on par or better than seven of the eight WISPs we reviewed (Starry was the only exception). With Starlink residential price plans starting around $80 per month, the company’s introductory price plan is a bit more expensive than some introductory price plans from WISPs but Starlink is aggressively promoting its services and offering large discounts on its equipment to entice new customers.

To continue to play in the broadband space, WISPs need to try to secure more spectrum–licensed or unlicensed— to avoid network congestion and interference and also invest in network upgrades so their services remain competitive.

To find out more about Speedtest Intelligence® data and insights, visit our website.

About the author

Sue Marek

Ookla Research™ Articles

Sue Marek | June 10, 2025

Starlink’s U.S. Performance is on the Rise, Making it a Viable Broadband Option in Some States

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.

About the author

Sue Marek

Ookla Research™ Articles

Mike Dano | September 4, 2025

Starlink Slows Down during Burning Man

SpaceX’s satellite network showed signs of congestion in Nevada’s Pershing County last week.

Starlink today uses around 8,000 low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites to provide Internet connections to roughly 7 million customers around the world. But an event in the desert of Nevada last week collected enough Starlink users in one place to create a measurable effect on the company’s network in the region.

Key Takeaways:

A large number of Starlink users gathered in rural Nevada for the annual Burning Man event.
Starlink’s daily speeds in the area slowed to a low of 66 Mbps during Burning Man, but rose as the event wrapped up.
The annual Burning Man event draws enough Starlink users to affect Nevada’s statewide Starlink speeds.

Starlink satellite Internet connections have become increasingly popular at the Burning Man desert arts festival, a nine-day event that occurs annually. The festival attracted around 70,000 attendees last week. According to Ookla Speedtest Intelligence data, Starlink’s speeds slowed slightly amid Burning Man demand.

Specifically, Starlink download speeds surpassed 200 Mbps in Pershing County, Nevada – where Burning Man takes place every August – in the days leading up to the event. But during the actual Burning Man event itself – which took place from August 24 to September 1 – Starlink speeds dipped well below 100 Mbps. On August 28, Starlink speeds hit a daily low point of 66 Mbps, but then began to rise again as the event drew to a close.

It’s worth noting that, while there was a dip in speeds, Starlink users at Burning Man still received Internet speeds in rural Nevada that were faster than what some 5G networks provide in major US cities.

Starlink daily download speeds during Burning Man
In Pershing County, Nevada, USA. Burning Man was held August 24 – September 1.

Burning Man Goes Online

According to a Wall Street Journal report, Starlink services have become increasingly popular at recent Burning Man gatherings, and were prevalent across this year’s 1,500 Burning Man camps and art installations.

The event is big enough to earn itself a listing on Google Maps, and that location information is reflected in Ookla Speedtest Intelligence data for the month of August:

Moreover, Ookla recorded a major spike in the number of Speedtest users in Nevada’s Pershing County during the week of Burning Man. That’s no surprise considering Pershing County’s annual population sits at around 6,000, but spikes by 11x during the week of Burning Man.

Finally, it’s worth noting that a dip in Starlink speeds in Pershing County – one of more than a dozen counties in Nevada – also occurred last year during Burning Man. Indeed, Nevada’s median statewide Starlink speeds also dipped during the month of August 2024, mainly because of the network demands created by last year’s Burning Man during that month. But Starlink’s speeds across the entire United States were not affected.

Starlink monthly median download speeds
Burning Man is held annually at the end of August.

Network Loading

The dip in Starlink’s speeds last week was likely due to the loading that the company’s network experienced during Burning Man.

After all, a wireless network like Starlink’s satellite network is a shared resource, much like any other telecom network. As more users connect to such a network, they all compete for access to the same limited bandwidth. This competition can lead to a decrease in network performance, as the available bandwidth is divided among an increasing number of devices. Consequently, if too many users are streaming video, downloading large files, or engaging in other high-bandwidth activities at the same time, the network can become congested, resulting in slower speeds for everyone connected.

Some Starlink users are already familiar with this concept. According to PCMag, Starlink last year introduced $100 congestion charges for select areas where its network had become strained from too many users. This year, that fee rose to $250 in some cities. But in other cities where Starlink has excess capacity, the company has been offering potential customers free equipment.

Network congestion is also a well-known issue for cellular operators like Verizon and T-Mobile. That’s why some deploy temporary cell sites during major events like concerts.

This is all particularly relevant as SpaceX – the rocket company building Starlink’s satellite constellation – hopes to win hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding for rural broadband Internet services through the U.S. government’s Broadband Equity Access and Deployment Program (BEAD) program.

According to the financial analysts at New Street Research, Starlink has so far won $387 million in BEAD grants to provide Internet services across 213,000 rural locations in the U.S.

About the author

Mike Dano

Ookla Research™ Articles

Kerry Baker | December 11, 2024

Starlink & Claro's Partnership in Colombia - Will Performance Stack Up?

Network performance stats in the tech press catch our attention here at Ookla – especially download and upload speeds or latency. Here’s a quick look into this press release about the Starlink satellite internet service being offered by Claro Colombia. The release states that Starlink will offer download speeds ranging from 40 to 220 Mbps, upload speeds ranging from from 8 to 25 Mbps, and latency in the range of 20 to 60 ms.

Speed and Latency Ranges Are In Reach

On the surface, Starlink’s performance claims appear possible for users to achieve, even though Q3 2024 Speedtest user data for Starlink in Colombia is not yet there.

The article doesn’t state how its ranges were determined, so, to make a comparison, we constructed our own ranges by examining the lowest and highest 10th percentiles, along with medians, of Starlink Speedtest users.

	Low¹	Mid²	High³
Download Speed (Mbps)
Starlink	40	130	220
Speedtest	8	54	140
Upload Speed (Mbps)
Starlink	8	17	25
Speedtest	4	14	27
Latency (ms)
Starlink	60	40	20
Speedtest	116	44	30

For download speeds, the Speedtest range (8 – 140 Mbps) fell short of the Starlink range (40 – 220 Mbps) and the median Speedtest (54 Mbps) was well short of the middle of the Starlink range (130 Mbps). Still, there was a healthy overlap, and there are other factors that can explain slower speeds in Speedtest user test than what Starlink is providing, such as older user equipment or Wi-Fi propagation path loss.

To get a picture of download speeds, we mapped our Starlink Speedtest users’ tests based on the 40 – 220 Mbps range with a color break at the 130 Mbps midpoint. The light red and light green squares coalesced, forming an area of tests within the range – a clear visual majority. And while many tests fell below the range (dark red squares), a few were also above range (dark green squares).

Turning to upload speeds, the Speedtest range (4 – 27 Mbps) and the Starlink range (8 – 25 Mbps) were much closer than download speeds. Likewise, Speedtest median (14 Mbps) and the Starlink midpoint (17 Mbps) are close, too.

Last, the latency Speedtest range (30 – 116 ms) and the Starlink range (20 – 60) were also closer than they may appear. Latency tests are susceptible to extreme values (very high latency) that result in a long-tail effect. More insightful for latency is the closeness of the Speedtest median (44 ms) and the Starlink mid-point (40 ms).

Quick Take Away

Starlink began service in Colombia in February 2023. It continues to add capacity to its constellation and introduce new terminals to support more use cases.

The Speedtest perspective finds the speed and latency ranges in the press release to be credible, and we look forward to revisiting the data to see more Speedtest users enjoying the benefit of the Claro Colombia and Starlink alliance.

Low for Starlink is the bottom of its stated range for speed and top for latency; for Speedtest it is the slowest 10th percentile for speed and highest 10th percentile for latency ↩︎
Mid for Starlink is the simple average of its stated range; for Speedtest it is the median speed ↩︎
High for Starlink is the top of its stated range for speed and bottom for latency; for Speedtest it is the fastest 10th percentile for speed and lowest 10th percentile for latency ↩︎

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Kerry Baker

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World Cup 2026: Is Your Roaming Strategy Ready for High-Density Traffic?

Accenture to Acquire Ookla to Strengthen Network Intelligence and Experience with Data and AI For Enterprises

Repeated Storms Test Portugal's Network Resilience and Spotlight the Role of Satellite Connectivity

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Mobile network download speeds declined by more than 50%, while Starlink usage experienced a nearly 200% increase compared to pre-storm baselines

Key Takeaways:

A devastating storm sequence

Mobile network performance degradation was severe and sustained, with recovery still ongoing

Starlink as a Resilience Layer

The Regulatory Gap and the Road to Resilience

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2025 Global Satellite Broadband Performance Report

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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.

Key takeaways:

The race to space

Tracking the rise of Starlink

Starlink speeds rise across top markets

A closer look at Starlink’s latency

Evaluating the other satellite providers

What to expect next

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Starlink Elevates In-Flight Wi-Fi Performance

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Airlines are using in-flight connectivity to differentiate their service and create brand value

Airline In-Flight Wi-Fi Performance – Download / Upload / Latency

Connectivity Service Providers

In-flight Connectivity Service Providers and Associated Airlines

Connectivity Service Provider In-Flight Wi-Fi Performance – Download / Upload / Latency

Nowhere to go but up

Watch this space

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There's Growing Interest in T-Mobile's Starlink Satellite Service

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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.

Key Takeaways:

T-Satellite Rockets into the Commercial Marketplace

National Forests and National Parks are Top Locations for D2D Users

D2D Connections are Relatively Rare

SpaceX may have Big Plans for Starlink and D2D

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Starlink Ignites Internet Fiesta in Rural Latin America

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SpaceX’s satellite internet service is showing growth throughout Latin America, just as other companies ramp up alternatives.

Key takeaways:

Starlink lands in Latam

Starlink accelerates across Latin America

Starlink isn’t the only game in town

Satellite market on course to become more complex and diverse

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.

Principales conclusiones:

Starlink aterriza en Latam

Starlink acelera en América Latina

Starlink no es el único actor en el mercado

El mercado del satélite rumbo a ser más complejo y diverso

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U.S. Broadband Speeds on the Uptick, Digital Divide Narrows

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A new Ookla report found that the digital divide has narrowed in 33 states during the first half of 2025.

Key Takeaways

South Dakota No. 1 in Starlink-delivered broadband speeds

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WISP Report Card: Data Shows Most Fail FCC’s 100/20 Mbps Benchmark

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Wireless ISPs face a growing threat from LEO satellite providers like Starlink that can reach rural users with faster download speeds.

Key Takeaways

The Many Flavors of WISPs

The eight WISPs and their coverage areas

Most WISPs struggle to deliver the FCC’s minimum broadband speeds to their customers

mmWave’s bigger pipe doesn’t always equal faster speeds

Starry

**Speedtest Performance in States Not Included in Starlink’s Free Equipment Offer**