Ookla Finds Starlink’s UK Broadband Speeds are Poor vs Europe
Internet benchmarking firm Ookla, which operates the popular Speedtest.net broadband and mobile connection testing service, has published a new study that examines the performance of Starlink’s (SpaceX) LEO satellite broadband service across Europe. Overall, the UK delivers the best latency of all the countries tested, but we’re poor for download and upload speeds.
At present Starlink has almost 7,000 satellites in Low Earth Orbit (c.2,800 are v2 Mini / GEN 2A) – mostly at altitudes of c.500-600km – and they’re in the process of adding thousands more by the end of 2027. Customers in the UK typically pay from £75 a month for a 30-day term, plus £299 for hardware on the ‘Standard’ unlimited data plan (inc. £19 postage), which promises latency times of 25-60ms, downloads of 25-100Mbps and uploads of 5-10Mbps.
However, over the past couple of years we have observed a bit of a decline in Starlink’s performance, which reflects the changeable balance between rising customer demand and SpaceX’s ability to launch new satellites in order to keep up with that demand. This is also influenced by differences in access to data capacity at local ground stations and regulatory access to the necessary radio spectrum bands, among other things, which can vary between countries.
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Ookla’s new report, which uses data collected during Q4 2024, digs a bit deeper into all this and gives us a useful overview of how Starlink performs across the UK and Europe. For example, the UK delivered the fastest latency (server response times) across Europe with a score of 41ms (milliseconds), which places us at the top of the performance table for this specific metric. By comparison, Cyprus was the slowest on 144ms.
The report also noted that latency is one area where Starlink has generally continued to improve. Speedtest Intelligence® data shows a consistent trend of double-digit declines in median latency across over a dozen European countries between Q4 2023 and Q4 2024, with the UK falling from around 50ms to 41ms and other countries seeing similar improvements.
In terms of the average median download speeds, the United Kingdom scored 87.06Mbps, while uploads came in at 12.78Mbps. In both cases, this placed the UK in the bottom half of the performance table, while the likes of Hungary delivered the fastest Starlink downloads of 135.11Mbps and Romania topped the table for uploads on 23.52Mbps.
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Back to those speed declines. Between Q4 2022 and Q4 2023, Ookla stated that Central European countries saw some of the steepest declines in median download speeds. In Germany, speeds fell by 31% — from 94.37Mbps to 65.44Mbps — while Switzerland recorded a 24% drop, going from 136.03Mbps to 103.88Mbps. But it’s not all bad news.
“For the first time in Q4 2024, there were signs that the successive speed declines observed in previous quarters may have stabilized, with early indications of a potential recovery. However, given quarter-to-quarter variability, it remains to be seen whether this trend will hold in the coming year,” said the study. You can see what they mean below, where we’ve highlighted the UK’s performance line over time.
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Starlink’s performance also stands a good chance of continuing to improve once SpaceX starts using their new Starship rocket to launch significantly larger quantities of satellites, as well as their next generation of bigger V3 (GEN3) satellites that can handle 1Tbps (Terabits per second) of capacity (here).
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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Probably due to over-subscription, there’s a surcharge to put people off buying Starlink in the UK at the moment.
My local Vodafone mast is Starlink backhauled, latency is always over 6ms ans upload never reaches over 5Mbps.
In fairness I think you’d struggle to achieve less than 6ms of latency over 4G or 5G 🙂
Starlink has been an absolute godsend, more than worth the price for us. Our fixed line speed was less than 1mbps and Openreach had installed fibre up to the end of our road, then completely abandoned the area.
Ookla whistleblower says their reports are manipulated and paid for.
I’m not a fan of Elon Musk but as someone who installs network solutions based on customer needs, it would seem that the whistleblower was probably telling some truths.
Starlink without fail always delivers over 100mbps, most often between 150-350mbps.
I’ve installed dozens of these all over the UK.
Ookla needs to be investigated.
Remember, the speeds above are a “median” averages, so there’s always going to be some users on the wrong side of that (even Starlink puts the range from 25Mbps and up). Worth adding that Thinkboadband’s results for Starlink were even slower:
https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2024/12/top-fastest-uk-mobile-and-home-broadband-isps-for-h2-2024.html
Without fail always delivers over 100mbs…. in your small sample size.
Because it most certainly does not.
Okkla and others dont represent an accurate speed test result because net work operators detect and prioritise bandwidth to their traffic in order ensure they get the best results possible.
In everyday use no one is getting these speeds from their mobile operator. The results from speed test.net are prioritised ‘burst’ speeds.
But also, once you get above 30Mbs it doesn’t really matter anyway because individual users aren’t going to notice a difference between 50 or 150 MBs unless they are downloading colossal files.
Low latency is important though.
Companies like streetwave who carry out granular drive testing provide a far more accurate picture of actual speeds users will get from their mobile operator and they are far lower than from the likes of Ookla
Mark, me thinks Cyprus would disagree with you ;);) 144 vs 41ms!?
quelle surprise
the UK pays more for less and the government doesn’t attempt to get a good deal for us
Overloaded due to openreach’s cack handed fttp installs, where the CEOs bonus is more important than actually doing the job.
Wheres the story here?
I’m tempted to suggest that this is because the UK is more ‘screen addicted’ than elsewhere in Europe, where people just get out more!
That said, maybe it’s reflective of the growth in ‘hybrid workers’ in the UK since the pandemic, including more people who have moved out of cities and towns to more rural parts where connectivity is poorer and so have got Starlink for all their Zoom & Teams meetings. Though said people are perhaps more likely to want to be able to stream Netflix (for example) in the evening too.
As a landmass we are more confined as a population, so where there is 1 starlink across Europe there is probably 5-10 in the UK and has already been mentioned the UK’s fibre rollout has been somewhat interesting compared to other countries that seem to have just got it done to full coverage rather than this mess we have in the UK.
I’ve installed a Starlink in recent months where the fttp connections run to pole outside but Openreach won’t connect the property because their line runs underground, however the neighbouring property can have a line….
Worked great to be fair speeds at 200-300mbps down and 20 up,
However I must share another recent experience which was in the South of England, where I had no part in a Starlink install however learnt that a major retailer in the UK has opted to use starlink as sole connections for retail stores, so with this sort of uptake over fixed line services I believe contention is only inevitable.
I don’t know if I agree with this as a business practice but paying customers are paying customers as as many will only know they shouldn’t be restricted in purchasing something.
Starlink needs more earth stations for adequate backhaul, so they’ve already begun to drop five a day right into high-usage customers’ back yards, with the number expected to rise sharply.