By Kate Duffy Business Insider
- SpaceX’s public beta test of its Starlink satellite-internet service is giving some users download speeds of more than 160 megabits per second — faster than 95% of US connections, according to the speed-test provider Ookla.
- One Starlink customer in rural Montana said on Reddit that their download speed was 174 Mbps. “Starlink will forever change the game,” they said.
- SpaceX said in an email to beta-test subscribers last week that they should expect speeds between 50 and 150 Mbps, with intermittent outages. Most speeds in a list compiled by the Starlink Reddit community fell in that range.
SpaceX tried to lower expectations when it launched its Starlink satellite internet beta on October 26 — but some users say they’re already hitting download speeds of more than 160 megabits per second, faster than 95% of US connections, according to the speed-test provider Ookla.
One person on the West Coast posted a screenshot on the Starlink Reddit community of a speed test showing a download speed of 161 Mbps. They were one of many to share their speed in recent days.
Another person who said they were in rural Montana said that their download speed was 174 Mbps and that their upload speed was 33 Mbps. “Starlink will forever change the game,” they said.
In an October 26 email, SpaceX, founded by Elon Musk, said users in the “Better Than Nothing Beta” — in which a network of nearly 900 satellites is beaming internet service down to Earth — could expect speeds of between 50 Mbps and 150 Mbps.