Starlink delivering 160 Mb/s
November 4, 2020
By Chris Forrester
Elon Musk’s Starlink broadband-by-satellite service is providing impressive speeds to its beta-test users.
Numerous reports are emerging that downlink speeds, according to speedtest specialist Ookla, are reaching 160 Mb/s and for at least one rural customer in Montana stated that his downlink speed was 174 Mb/s and upload of 33 Mb/s. Another on the West Coast (on Starlink’s Reddit page) showed a download speed to 161 Mb/s.
Starlink themselves are not promising – or guaranteeing – those speeds will be typical and only that beta-test subscribers can expect connection speeds of between 50-150 Mb/s, but that there could also be breaks in service while the mega-constellation is being established and there’s a brief interruption as satellites pass overhead.
Ookla says that speeds of 160 Mb/s or better would be an improvement for 95 per cent of US connections.