The median download speeds for Starlink in the US topped 100Mbps for the first time during last year’s Q4, according to Ookla Speedtest stats.
On Wednesday, Ookla reported the median download rate hit 104.97Mbps for US users of SpaceX’s satellite internet service.
That’s good news since speeds in the US had decreased to 87.25Mbps in Q3, from a previous high of 97.23Mbps. In addition, the results show Starlink inching closer to matching median download speeds for ground-based fixed internet in the US, which reached 131.30Mbps in Q4.
The Starlink speed increase also happened as SpaceX delayed customer orders for satellite internet service, citing the ongoing chip shortage. So it’s possible the order slowdown may have helped free up bandwidth for Starlink to serve its existing customers.
Although the download rate increased for US Starlink users in Q4, the upload rate slightly decreased to 12Mbps, down from 13.54Mbps in Q3. Meanwhile, the latency hit 40ms, an improvement from 44ms in the previous quarter.
In contrast, rival satellite providers HughesNet and Viasat were only able to supply download rates at around 20Mbps, or about a fifth of what Starlink is capable of, at a far higher latency.
Ookla also looked at the Starlink speeds in various US counties and found the fastest download rates were in Miami Dade County in Florida at 191.08Mbps. Meanwhile, the slowest were in Columbia County in Oregon at 64.95Mbps. So there can a be rather wide disparity in speed quality across the US.
Starlink users in Canada also saw the same speed trends as the US. The median download rate reached 106.64Mbps, increasing from 84.55Mbps in Q3. But unlike in the US, Starlink has now become the fastest broadband provider in the country.
Outside the US and Canada, the median download speeds for Starlink were even faster. In Mexico, the median download rate was at 144Mbps. Meanwhile in Belgium, the speeds reached 155Mbps, up from 127Mbps in Q3. The download rate was also double the median download speed for fixed broadband in the country.
For more information on how Starlink performed across other countries, you can check out Ookla’s report, which relies on user data from Speedtest.net, a way to see the real-time speeds for your internet provider.
Disclosure: Ookla is owned by PCMag parent company, Ziff Davis.