(Credit: HughesNet)
To compete with Starlink, rival HughesNet is starting to offer customers access to 100Mbps satellite internet speeds.
HughesNet is doing so with the help of Jupiter 3, an exceptionally large communications satellite in a high geostationary orbit that the company launched in July. After conducting several tests, HughesNet says Jupiter 3 is ready for action.
The upgraded speeds will be part of the existing HughesNet Fusion plan, which was offering customers max download speeds at 25Mbps starting at $74.99 per month or 50Mbps for $149.99 per month. A price sheet from HughesNet shows the Fusion plan can now support download speeds up to 100Mbps at a monthly charge of $109.99. Upload speeds only reach 5Mbps.
(Credit: HughesNet)The same price sheet also shows HughesNet offering the 100Mbps download speeds for a new Elite plan that’ll cost $89.99 per month. That said, both the Elite and Fusion Plans can impose a high-speed data cap of 100GB or 200GB per month. Once the cap is exceeded, presumably the subscriber can continue consuming data at reduced speeds.
Amid the launch, the company is also offering some discounts on both the Fusion and Elite plans.
To power the improved broadband, the Jupiter 3 satellite has been designed to offer over 500Gbps in broadband capacity, bringing HughesNet’s total capacity to more than 1Tbps.
“This ultra-high-density satellite features more than 300 spot beams that alleviate congestion and deliver a faster experience,” the company says. “The state-of-the-art ground system for Jupiter 3 has a new dedicated fiber backbone to reduce latency and artificial intelligence (AI) that automatically reroutes traffic around congestion.”
The new speeds could make HughesNet more competitive against Starlink, SpaceX’s satellite internet system, which is already serving 2.2 million customers across the globe. Although Starlink can offer download rates at over 220Mbps, many users in the US are actually receiving speeds closer to 70Mbps, according to Ookla’s Speedtest.net data. Residential Starlink service can also reach $120 per month, depending on the location.
Like Starlink, HughesNet customers also have to buy access to the required satellite dish hardware. In HughesNet’s case, consumers can either lease or buy the hardware at different prices depending on the plan.
Still, it remains unclear what kind of latency users can expect from the Jupiter 3 satellite. But HughesNet’s Fusion plan works by tapping both satellites and ground-based cellular networks to improve latency and speed. Meanwhile, the Elite plan offers satellite-only connectivity, dropping the ground-based support.
Disclosure: Ookla is owned by PCMag's parent company, Ziff Davis.