(Credit: Viasat)
Satellite internet service Viasat has lost over half of its US subscribers since the debut of Starlink.
In a Wednesday letter to shareholders, Viasat revealed the company has 257,000 subscribers to its US fixed broadband business. That's a major drop from the 603,000 subscribers it had in September 2020—right before SpaceX began inviting the first users to try out Starlink.
The 257,000 figure also appears to be the first time Viasat has publicly reported its US subscriber numbers since May 2021, when its US subscriber base had fallen slightly to 590,000.
Since then, Viasat has been mum on the subscriber count in both SEC filings and shareholder letters. But over the years, it did allude to a “decline in US fixed broadband revenue due to fewer residential subscribers,” suggesting that competition from Starlink was taking a toll on its business.
In March, rival HughesNet also reported losing over 200,000 subscribers last year amid the growing popularity of Starlink. Although both Viasat and HughesNet came to the satellite internet market years earlier, SpaceX stands out for offering a competing system with faster broadband speeds, better latency, with no data caps.
Both Viasat and HughesNet have responded by revamping their satellite internet plans to try and offer improved connectivity at lower costs, with Viasat dropping contracts and data caps. Still, the numbers suggest that Viasat has fallen behind Starlink, which now has over 1.4 million customers in the US, although its growth is starting to slow.
On the positive side, Viasat is generating an average of $115 per user in the US, up from $102.66 in 2020. The company has also installed its satellite internet service on 5,600 commercial and business aircraft, up from 1,480 in mid-May 2021, another area in which it competes with Starlink. In its shareholders letter, Viasat says it serves over 14,000 naval vessels.