How fast is Starlink?

The FAQ on Starlink’s website says that beta users “can expect to see data speeds vary from 50Mbits/sec to 150Mbits/sec and latency from 20ms to 40ms in most locations”. However, independent measurements suggest this is one of those rare occasions where a broadband provider is actually underplaying its headline speed.

Beta testers on the Starlink subreddit regularly show speedtest screenshots showing download speeds in excess of 300Mbits/sec – twice the maximum speed stated on the website. SamKnows, which measures broadband speeds for the US and UK telecoms regulators (among others), has seen likewise. SamKnows has its whiteboxes on multiple Starlink connections around the world and it too has recorded speeds of well over 200Mbits/sec.

But it’s easy to be distracted by one-off readings. SamKnows’ data shows that the vast bulk of its recent readings are at less than 50Mbits/sec. Indeed, 54.5% of its readings were below 20Mbits/sec, which is more comparable to ADSL performance than fibre. The upload speeds are little better, occasionally peaking to 20Mbits/sec, but below 1Mbits/sec 37.7% of the time.

SamKnows founder Sam Crawford speculates that the sub-par performance might be because “the pace of user adoption is faster than the pace that they’re adding new capacity”.

It’s worth noting that the service remains in beta and that the SamKnows sample size (eight homes in the US) is limited. It will be interesting to see if the performance improves as more satellites are launched or decreases as more beta testers are added to the service.