Starlink is now reaching speeds so fast that users in rural Montana can watch Falcon and The Winter Soldier on Disney Plus in 4K.
The latest findings comes via a report from Wccftech, which asked users who currently have the service to send in recent speed tests. What reporter Ramish Zafar found was that in both cities and rural America, speeds were exceeding 200 Mbps.
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A reader out in Montana provided reports of 190 Mbps. Whereas in Seattle and New York, users reported speeds at 230 or 240 Mbps. These are very competitive speeds, even for an urban environment.
At the moment, Elon Musk's satellite internet constellation is in the beta phase. It's recommended that users in upper latitudes, north of Seattle, sign up for the service to get the best results. That still hasn't stopped Tesla fans down in LA from trying out the service for themselves.
A reader in Sonoma County, California, gave details of his latest speed test result. Out of his six speed tests, the slowest speed was 44 Mbps while the fastest was 47 Mbps.
According to Broadband Now, the average speed of internet in Sonoma County is 120 Mbps. Gigabit internet is available in the region, too, maxing out at 1,000 Mbps. So, for that specific user, likely Starlink is a downgrade. But then again, Starlink really isn't meant for users in populated areas with lots of ISP competition.
Users on Twitter, too, have been posting screenshots of their Starlink speed test. Aaron J Spence, a farmer in Outlook, Saskatchewan, Canada, posted speeds of 214 Mbps. It's a massive upgrade over the 4.31 Mbps she was getting on Xplornet.
Hooked up our starlink today. Here was my speed test on xplornet and then starlink. pic.twitter.com/8nBnMKV5WJMarch 31, 2021
That's not to say Starlink is cheap. It requires a $500 equipment cost plus another $100 a month for the service itself. But considering the massive increase in internet speed, for many the cost has been worth it.
There's still a long way to go before Starlink can reach global connectivity. At the moment, SpaceX has only launched 1,300 low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellites into orbit. It's a far cry from the 12,000 needed to complete the satellite megaconstellation. But Elon Musk is hoping that the service will be fully operational by sometime next year.
