Starlink has 400,000 subscribers worldwide. But a study shows that the average performance tends to decrease as the number of subscriptions increases.
Network speed measurement company Ookla conducted a study of Starlink, SpaceX’s internet service provider. Your latest quarterly report it shows that their speeds are slowing down around the world as the service grows in popularity.
In countries cited by the study, such as Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States, and New Zealand, download speeds fell between Q2 2021 and Q2 2022. Declines range from 9% to 54%, depending on the country.
To explain this phenomenon, we need to look at the performance side of Starlink: the service gives a bit under the pressure of a user base that grows over time. Several users also reported surprise price drops in August, which may partly explain the increase in subscribers.
large-scale future
In France, the average download speed was 140 Mbps last year compared to 110 Mbps in the second quarter of 2022. Which is still an excellent figure by satellite Internet standards. On the carrier side, speeds increased from 75 Mbps to nearly 110 Mbps over the same period.
It is also worth noting that Starlink is deploying its activity on a large scale. The satellite network is under discussion with the American T-mobile. Network users could use SpaceX satellites to send messages to areas without cellular connectivity.
Another project, more uncertain this time, Elon Musk could become a supplier to Apple. For your new iPhonethe apple brand launches an emergency service that will connect to a satellite. Elon Musk naturally proposes to combine the services of his satellite constellation star link for the operation of this new application.