Josh Fomon

Satellite internet competition is heating up and Ookla has fresh data from Q4 2022 and Q1 2023 for HughesNet, SpaceX’s Starlink, and Viasat in North America, South America, and the Caribbean, as well as new Starlink markets. One finding is that Starlink users in metro and nonmetro areas love Starlink, while fixed broadband users dislike their internet service providers.

Internet connectivity continues to speed ahead for people around the world, especially as countries prioritize and improve mobile and fixed broadband networks. The improvement of global median download speeds has been somewhat asymmetrical over the past year on the Speedtest Global Index. Fixed broadband speeds made greater strides over the past year than mobile download speeds, with fixed broadband speeds becoming at least 28% faster and mobile becoming nearly 17% faster from November 2021 to November 2022.

Approximately 400,000 households now subscribe to Starlink worldwide. Perhaps a victim of their own success, Starlink download speeds dropped once again in Canada (at least 14%) and the US (at least 17%) from Q2 to Q3 2022, while speeds remained roughly the same in Chile quarter over quarter.

There is fresh data on satellite performance during Q2 2022 in Europe, Oceania, North America, and South America. This analysis includes results from eight additional countries, two new providers, and expanded data for Starlink, HughesNet, and Viasat. Key findings in an analysis from Speedtest Intelligence data include:

It’s been a year since Ookla first examined SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet, which launched its public beta in November 2020.

Speedtest Global Index Market Analyses from Ookla identify key data about internet performance in countries across the world. This quarter Ookla has provided updated analyses for 44 markets that include details on fastest mobile and fixed broadband providers, performance of most popular devices and chipsets and internet speeds in cities.

While six large internet service providers (ISPs) dominate the United States fixed broadband market, Ookla's Speedtest Intelligence reveals smaller providers are sometimes the fastest ISPs in a given state in the Midwest, South and West. This analysis examines US states in which smaller ISPs were the fastest fixed broadband providers during Q3 2021. Major findings include: