Satellite Internet Speed: Starlink and Others Explained
Quick answer
There are two satellite internets now. Traditional geostationary service is slow with a built-in lag you can feel in every click. Low-orbit constellations like Starlink fly hundreds of kilometres up instead of tens of thousands, so they respond much more like fixed broadband — variable, pricier, but genuinely usable where nothing else reaches.
Distance is everything
Satellite latency is simple physics: the further the satellite, the longer every round trip. Traditional satellites sit in geostationary orbit about 36,000 km above the equator — a round trip for your data is tens of thousands of kilometres before it even reaches the ground station, which is why every interaction carries a delay you can feel. Low-orbit constellations fly at only a few hundred kilometres, cutting that path by a factor of about sixty. The underlying concept: what is latency.
| Geostationary | Low-orbit (LEO) | |
|---|---|---|
| Altitude | About 36,000 km | A few hundred km |
| Round-trip feel | A noticeable delay in every click and call | Closer to fixed broadband |
| Speed character | Modest; variable at peak | Varies by location, load and plan — check current figures on the provider's site |
| Hardware | Dish, professionally aimed | Self-aiming flat antenna |
The numbers physics sets
Some satellite figures don't depend on any provider — they come from the speed of light. A request and its reply each travel up to the satellite and back down, so the signal covers the altitude four times. For a geostationary satellite at about 35,800 km, that's roughly 143,000 km, which takes light nearly half a second (about 480 ms) before any equipment or routing adds its share. For a low-orbit satellite at around 550 km, the same trip is a few thousand kilometres — under 10 ms of pure travel time. Real-world latency on both is higher than these floors, but the gap between them is why the two kinds feel so different.
Geostationary today
Still sold in many regions, and still the right answer for some remote sites — but set expectations honestly: browsing works with a beat of delay, downloads crawl relative to terrestrial plans, video calls are a test of patience, and fast-twitch online games are effectively out. Peak-hour slowdowns are a known character of shared capacity.
Low-orbit: Starlink and others
Starlink is the best-known LEO service, with other constellations operating or launching. Speeds and latency vary by region, cell load and plan tier, and the providers revise figures often — so treat their current published figures for your address as the source, and any blog number (including a cached one here) as stale on arrival. What's stable is the shape: download speeds competitive with mid-tier fixed broadband, latency far below geostationary though typically above fibre, and pricing above comparable wired plans.
Living with satellite
- The dish needs a clear view of the sky. Trees and buildings in the way interrupt the signal, so check the view from the spot you plan to use before you commit.
- Weather matters. Heavy rain can degrade a session ("rain fade"); snow on the dish definitely does.
- Data policies differ: some plans throttle or deprioritize after thresholds — read the tier's rules before assuming "unlimited".
- Test over time: run the speed test at several hours across a few days (the page keeps your history) — one result says very little about a technology whose cell loads shift.
Satellite vs the alternatives
Satellite wins when there is no wire at any price. Where 5G home internet has coverage it's usually cheaper with lower latency — 5G home internet speed; where fibre has reached, satellite rarely makes sense on speed or price. The full technology-by-technology comparison, including what each means for streaming and gaming: fibre vs cable vs DSL vs 5G.