The company says that in some countries Starlink download speeds were more than double those achieved from local fixed connections.
“Fast satellite internet has become increasingly available to more and more people across the globe,” says Josh Fomon (pictured), the author of the report for Ookla.
“It’s already a huge boon to rural communities that might otherwise be too remote for fixed broadband service.” Fomon’s report covers the fourth quarter of 2021.
“Austrian consumers had fast speeds over Starlink during Q4 2021, achieving faster median download speeds than that of all fixed broadband providers combined at 131.84Mbps versus 50.33Mbps on fixed broadband.”
In Belgium, Ookla recorded download speeds for Starlink of 155.15Mbps, faster than in the third quarter, when it was 127.46Mbps, and “much faster than the country’s median download for all fixed broadband of 76.94Mbps”.
Speed was also faster in France, at 121.21 Mbps, a figure that “easily beat the countrywide median for fixed broadband of 90.88Mbps”.
Starlink scored 115.58Mbps in Germany, “much faster than the fixed broadband median of 65.86Mbps”.
Ireland, measured for the first time, Starlink versus fixed recorded 123.51Mbps versus 65.89Mbps.
Italy is also a newcomer to Ookla’s chart, recording 124.39Mbps for Starlink, “a huge leap ahead of Italy’s fixed broadband average of 49.56Mbps”.
The advantage was less marked in the Netherlands, which has some of the fastest median mobile and fixed broadband speeds in the world, says Ookla. But Starlink was still faster, with “a median download speed of 138.40Mbps compared to 95.55Mbps over fixed broadband”.
There were similar results for Poland and Portugal, says the Ookla report. In the UK, “Starlink showed a faster median download speed”, at 121.94Mbps, compared with 57.66Mbps for fixed.
