Starlink gains higher orbit in Europe

A study from Ookla has found that in 2024, low Earth orbit (LEO) constellations emerged as an important part of the connectivity toolkit in the region, with particular good performance by Starlink.

The comms analyst found recent satellite launches have improved the SpaceX company’s performance in Europe, bolstering its credentials as a competitive broadband service. And that was amid, and despite, intensifying competition from the rapid expansion of fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) infrastructure across the continent.

It noted that the provider ramped up investments to increase the density of its ground stations and launched a blitz of new satellites in the latter half of 2024, and that with a network of more than 7,000 satellites worldwide, it remains the most capable in terms of coverage and capacity, providing broadband access throughout most of Europe.

There were three drivers for Starlink’s success highlighted in the study: “significant” improvements in latency were translating into better quality of experience (QoE) for users across Europe; download speeds recovering in most countries as SpaceX continues to scale capacity with recent satellite launches; adoption more highly concentrated in countries with lower levels of fibre penetration and a larger proportion of the population living in rural areas. 

Latency disparity between Starlink and the aggregate terrestrial fixed broadband market has narrowed substantially across Europe over the past two years. In Q4 2024, Starlink users in Western Europe experienced the lowest median latencies on the continent, with the UK (41 ms), Belgium (46 ms) and Luxembourg (46 ms) leading the way. These improvements in latency have resulted in a boost for Starlink’s QoE performance for video streaming, web browsing and gaming, as evidenced by outcomes such as shorter video start times and reduced game latency.

While the latencies observed in the aggregate fixed broadband market remain materially lower than those of Starlink across Europe, there has been remarkable progress in improving its competitiveness. Ookla measurements revealed a consistent trend of double-digit declines in median latency across over a dozen European countries between Q4 2023 and Q4 2024. 

According to Ookla Speedtest Intelligence data, over the past two years, Starlink’s download speed performance has faced growing pressure as the service scaled and network usage increased. In Q4 2024, most European countries experienced an improvement in Starlink download speeds, likely driven, said Ookla, by the continued expansion of the satellite constellation. For the first time in Q4 2024, there were signs that the successive speed declines observed in previous quarters may have stabilised, with early indications of a potential recovery.

The analyst said that the sharp increase in operational satellites at the end of October 2024 appears to have contributed to higher speeds across multiple countries, with some regions seeing particularly notable gains. It noted that Southern European countries such as Croatia (around 70%) and Greece (about 65%) recorded substantial quarter-on-quarter download speed increases between the third and fourth quarters of last year, now ranking among the fastest Starlink connections in Europe. However, it warned that given quarter-to-quarter variability, it remained to be seen whether this trend would hold over 2025.

Looking at concentration, the report noted that Central and Southern European countries such as Germany, Greece, Italy and Croatia have below-average FTTH coverage compared with the European Union average, and exhibit higher levels of Starlink adoption, likely due to the LEO offering being relatively more competitive (either on performance or price) in these regions.

Yet at the same time, while Starlink was found to continue to provide higher speeds than the aggregate terrestrial fixed broadband market in some countries – including Greece, Czechia, Italy and Croatia – the number of such markets is steadily decreasing. Ookla stressed that significant fibre investments across Europe have improved fixed broadband speeds over the past two years, increasingly challenging Starlink’s competitiveness.

Going forward, the report noted that the LEO space race was heating up above Europe, with SpaceX’s ambitions for Starlink extending well beyond traditional broadband. It observed that over the coming year, Starlink plans to enter the direct-to-device (D2D) market by connecting unmodified consumer handsets.

This effort is being powered by the launch of SpaceX’s Gen2 satellites, of which the company ultimately hopes to deploy tens of thousands. AST SpaceMobile, meanwhile, is targeting the D2D market and already has five satellites in operation. It aims to expand its constellation to more than 240 satellites.