back to article Starlink speeds ahead in the satellite race but rivals aren't starstruck just yet

SpaceX's Starlink satellite broadband service has become the provider to beat on speed, according to network intelligence outfit Ookla, although the company faces competition coming soon from a rash of rivals. In speed tests conducted by Ookla during the second quarter of 2023, Starlink turned out to be the fastest among the …

  1. jollyboyspecial

    Speed is only part of the story. What about latency and jitter?

    1. Michael Hoffmann Silver badge
      Thumb Up

      I generally find it enough for gaming. That said, I do MMOs not the COD/LOL style, so YMMV.

    2. xyz Silver badge

      I haven't checked the speed this a.m. but it's always over the 300mbps mark (40mbps up) with latency at around 30-35ms (Spain) , so I'm kinda baffled by the low speeds in the report. I'm guessing that as I'm in the middle of nowhere, my dishy doesn't have to fight with other dishys for laser "bandwidth".

      The only problem I've had with the service is heavy rain (and associated cloud as I'm at 500m above sea level) dropping the connection, but as I'm running solar it's probably a good thing.

    3. John Robson Silver badge

      Remarkably good and consistent - I'd broken down my analysis on here before

  2. martinusher Silver badge

    You can see why SpaceX doesn't want Starlink to be used by organized military

    This is a truly global system but the moment it gets integrated into the military of any country it becomes effectively a military system that's also has civilian uses. At that point it ceases to be truly global because likely American adversaries (the list is quite long already and growing**) will look for alternatives so a huge part of Starlink's potential market is lost. Permanently. It also legitimizes military attacks on its infrastructure. It goes without saying that this is really bad for business.

    **(Not necessarily countries in direct or indirect conflict with the US but liable to sanctions and the like)

    1. jollyboyspecial

      Re: You can see why SpaceX doesn't want Starlink to be used by organized military

      Does that mean that the internet is a "effectively a military system that's also has civilian uses"?

    2. Hairy Spod

      Re: You can see why SpaceX doesn't want Starlink to be used by organized military

      being used by the military doesn't seem to have dented uptake of GPS by cars, phones, tablets, watches etc....

  3. Khaptain Silver badge

    I can only dream of these speeds.

    My last Ookla Speed test gave me 12Mb download and 0.8Mb Upload...

    Yes you read that correctly....12 / 0.8 Megabits. Bits not Bytes.

    Our building is fibre ready but because of work on the Tram lignes nearby we won't get the fibre before 2026....

    I really don't like working from home...

    And 4G is no better because I live at the extremity of the cell towers range. And Starlink is not possible because of poor sky visibility...

    It goes to show that even in the 1st world we don't always get the best of everything.

  4. Old one

    Why I stopped using Starlink

    Came down to privacy... Starlink would NOT let me run a VPN to protect my financial data.... And I guess I was on a fringe of coverage so speeds would drop to zero (generally only realized it watching movies or videos) so it lacked reliability for being able to execute transactions at times. You are ready to hit send and Starlink times out for a minute but THAT minute is when your bank moves all transactions to the NEXT day... NOT NOW!!! I still have the dish and as more satellites are launched I'll probably try it again. I was really glad to have it when my Comcast went down for 4 days. My Comcast speeds are all over the place and often not enough bandwidth to simultaneously have a movie on TV and a laptop watching a video especially for a price that is about 4X the value. And it also will often drop the cable connection. I rely on internet WAY TOO MUCH by age and mobility challenges that limit my options. For perspective, I filled the gas tank in the car April 3rd and its gone 94 miles....

    1. jollyboyspecial

      Re: Why I stopped using Starlink

      As the only real use for satellite internet connectivity is in areas not served by terrestrial services it must be frustrating to find that Starlink does not provide a reliable service in such an area

    2. John Robson Silver badge

      Re: Why I stopped using Starlink

      "Starlink would NOT let me run a VPN to protect my financial data"

      I call bull.

      No issues running a VPN over starlink, besides which you're presumably not rely solely on a vpn for encrypted financial data.

      1. Marty McFly Silver badge
        FAIL

        Re: Why I stopped using Starlink

        Agreed, calling bravo-sierra.

        My work endpoint maintains a VPN tunnel with Palo/GlobalProtect for around 72 hours before corporate policy times it out and I have to reconnect. I have a PFSense running on VMWare which maintains a single VPN connection to NordVPN, and all my privacy secured endpoints point to the PFSense LAN port for their gateway. I regularly monitor whatismyipaddress.com to verify the tunnel is up and I am not getting shuffled back to Starlink. I've also got a VPN tunnel to AWS so that I can route SMTP traffic to my local email server.

        VPN works just fine on Starlink. Think about it... How stupid would it be for Starlink to block VPN traffic? That would cut off a huge amount of their potential customer base who wants to work remote & VPN back to their corporate mothership.

        Someone is spreading FUD about Starlink, or simply won't admit to a underlying PEBCAK error.

  5. Mage Silver badge
    Facepalm

    Fibre

    Anywhere that has mains water or mains gas, or mains sewerage, or mains electricity or wired phone can have fibre cheaply.

    But mobile / cell marketing was hurting fibre investment even 15 years ago.

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