A Starlink user terminal in the snow. Image: Steve Golson / YouTube
The Starlink satellite-based internet service from Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) continues to offer incredibly fast download speeds to its users. Starlink is currently in its beta launch stage, with users in the United States signing up for the service. The results of the service’s Internet tests received by Wccftech reveal that while Starlink continues to outperform its competitors, HughesNet and Viasat, speeds also vary; an occurrence that reflects the beta nature of the launch.
Starlink Offers Industry-Leading Download Speed for California Users
Courtesy of a reader from Sonoma County, California, who was kind enough to provide us with the results of his Internet speed test for the SpaceX service, we can take a brief look at what the service is capable of offering today.
The results show a variable level of scores, the bottom end of which still gets higher than what SpaceX’s competitors offer. PCMag data in October revealed that HughesNet and Viasat were able to provide average download speeds of ~ 20 Mbps and ~ 25 Mbps, respectively.
Starlink, on the other hand, more than doubled the download speed of HughesNet for the lowest scores from our Californian reader. Of the six results shared with us, SpaceX’s lowest download speed to satellite internet was 44 Mbps – which also increased to 46 Mbps and 47 Mbps in subsequent tests.
In data that SpaceX shared with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in October, the company revealed that the service’s average download speed was 80 Mbps, having increased from 43 Mbps in September.
While the 40 Mbps range is for the lower end of today’s test results, the upper end mirrors the results we covered earlier. For example, a user in Montana shared his test results in January this year with a download speed of 190 Mbps. This result was surpassed by users in Seattle and New York earlier this week, who reported download speeds of 230 Mbps and 240 Mbps, respectively.
The highest download speed that our user was able to achieve was 200 Mbps, which is in line with what others have also reported. All of these tests were performed on an Apple iPad Mini, and the test with the highest score was performed about four days after the first five tests.
SpaceX markets Starlink as a service that promises to bring Internet connectivity to rural and other underserved regions in the United States. Unlike other satellite internet providers, the company plans to operate thousands of small satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO). This is one of the lowest orbital capsules for a spacecraft, and the company’s decision is influenced by its desire to reduce latency (the time required for a signal to travel to and from a user terminal) and to be able to quickly deorbitate the spacecraft. in case of malfunction.
For this last front, the company also signed an agreement with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), through which the two will share data for NASA and Starlink satellite parameters to avoid setbacks. SpaceX will also work with the space agency to adjust its satellite launch times to ensure a trajectory that does not overlap with NASA’s manned and unmanned missions.
The company is also struggling in the FCC’s corridors to secure approval for its third Starlink modification. This modification proposes to reduce the altitudes of the satellites and change the angles of the ground stations – changes that SpaceX’s competitors, such as Amazon and DISH, have argued against, claiming that they will have a significant impact on their services.