Elon Musk’s Starlink has been the talk of the town lately, with the eccentric billionaire donating hardware to help keep Ukrainian citizens connected during the ongoing conflict.
However, in the rest of the world, the Starlink service is still a very expensive way to access the Internet, especially if you opt for the premium package.
For most households, Starlink doesn’t make much sense, but if you’re in a remote rural area without access to major broadband providers, it could be a godsend.
The question is, how fast is Starlink in the real world? Ookla, the company behind Speedtest.net, has used its vast dataset to find out exactly how Starlink stacks up against the competition around the world.
Starlink speed in the US
In the US, Ookla found that Starlink was the fastest satellite internet provider, by a significant margin, during the fourth quarter of 2021. However, it cannot compete with the average speed of fixed internet providers in the US. USA. Ookla also noted that Starlink saw a significant speed increase from Q3 to Q4 2021, going from an average download speed of 87.25 Mbps to 104.97 Mbps.
Starlink also has impressive latency numbers and is the only satellite internet service that comes close to the average latency offered by fixed internet providers.
However, this experience is not consistent across the United States, as speeds vary widely by location. The highest speeds were recorded in Miami Dade County, Florida, with average download speeds of 191.08 Mbps.
Starlink speed in the UK
In the UK, where most of us seem to struggle with slow internet, Starlink is almost twice as fast as the average broadband download speed. It can’t keep up with the charging speed, but the margin is very narrow. Median latency is also low, and Ookla considers it to be good enough to reliably play online multiplayer games.
When compared to SES Satellite Internet, there is simply no comparison. So if you’re one of the few in the UK that requires satellite internet, it sounds like Starlink might be the best option.