SpaceX's Starlink satellite ISP is poised to make a big difference in rural America, according to exclusive Ookla Speedtest data shared with PCMag.
Starlink is currently in a semi-public beta, serving more than 10,000 users at speeds up to 170Mbps, with no data caps, according to beta testers.
Ookla located US counties with at least 30 Starlink samples since December, and charted Starlink's speeds county by county against all other fixed internet providers. Our own analysis shows that Starlink will make the biggest difference in rural, low-density, low-population counties with few options other than lower-quality satellite services.
On the other hand, there are a perplexing number of Starlink beta-testers signing up for the service in urban and suburban counties with potentially better options, like Chicago (Cook County), Seattle (King County), and Minneapolis (Hennepin County). Other ISPs should be able to serve those areas without the expense of shooting satellites into the sky.
The concern there is the limited capacity of Starlink's satellite constellation. The company asked for clearance to serve up to 5 million US customers, but a recent survey said up to 65 million households may want the service. If urban and suburban users take up those slots, there may be none left for the rural users who really need it. Starlink will have to manage its signups smartly.
(The chart below excludes Los Angeles and Santa Clara counties, which are probably results from SpaceX or Tesla facilities and staff.)
Where in the World Is Starlink?
According to different reports, Starlink's current constellation primarily supports users between either 44 degrees or 45 degrees north, and either 52 degrees or 53 degrees north.
The US border is generally around 49 degrees north, and Ookla did not give us data for Canadian users. So most of the users we saw were in a tight band between 44 degrees north and the Canadian border. Washington state had the most active counties, and there were very few counties east of Michigan on the map.
There are clearly some exceptions to the 44-degree rule going on. The two California counties on the map are Santa Clara and Los Angeles, home to the SpaceX and Tesla headquarters. But Ookla also found users in Canyon County, Idaho, which goes no further north than 43.8 degrees; Cook County, Ilinois, at 42.1 degrees; and Berrien County, Michigan, at 42.24 degrees.
Starlink's website says that the service will arrive in other US localities in mid or late 2021.