SpaceX’s satellite broadband service Starlink has now expanded across the entire United Kingdom.
Previously available mainly in southern England while still in beta, Starlink today announced coverage has been extended to include parts of Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and northern England.
Starlink advises users to expect variable download speeds between approximately 50 Mb/s and 150 Mb/s for the coming months, and warns there may be occasional short periods without connectivity.
For context, the UK’s average download speed across fixed-line broadband providers is about 67.23 Mb/s, a figure that is rising as full-fibre rollouts resume momentum after pandemic-related delays.
Starlink’s pricing — a hardware cost of £439 and a monthly fee of £89 — makes it a less obvious choice for typical urban home broadband. The service is positioned to provide fast, rapidly deployable connectivity to rural and hard-to-reach areas where laying traditional fibre is costly and slow.
“This will transform rural WiFi,” says Nathan Hill-Haimes, co-founder of Compare Fibre. “We are keen to stress the impact this can have on connecting rural locations with high-speed internet.”
A Starlink user in Devon told the Press Association that for businesses or people who need reliable communication — particularly during COVID times — a £90 monthly cost can be justified.
More than 1,000 Starlink satellites are already in orbit out of the 12,000 authorised, and SpaceX has filed with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) seeking permission to launch an additional 30,000 satellites.
Increasing competition
Starlink currently leads the satellite broadband market, but competition is growing. Amazon’s Project Kuiper plans a large constellation and intends to challenge established providers in the coming years.
Project Kuiper received approval from the FCC to deploy 3,236 satellites, with the team emphasising innovation to deliver fast, reliable broadband at customer-friendly prices.
SpaceX is launching satellites in batches of roughly 60 and aims to deploy around 1,440 by late 2021 to approach near-global coverage. The company notes that as more satellites are launched, additional ground stations built, and networking software improved, speeds, latency and uptime should all improve significantly.
In addition to Amazon, both Starlink and Kuiper face competition from OneWeb, a satellite broadband company that recovered from bankruptcy after a major rescue investment.
OneWeb nearly collapsed during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic but was rescued by a consortium led by the UK government and Bharti Global. Since then it has attracted further investment and reported total funding of roughly $1.4 billion following additional backing from SoftBank Group and Hughes Network Systems.
OneWeb has already launched 74 of its low Earth orbit satellites and targets a fleet of 648 satellites by the end of 2021, making it smaller than Starlink and Project Kuiper but still a notable contender.
Leaders in the industry highlight the potential for these satellite constellations to transform internet access worldwide by connecting underserved regions more quickly than traditional infrastructure can.
Starlink’s UK expansion marks an important step in bringing high-speed satellite internet to rural communities, and the market is set to become more competitive as Project Kuiper, OneWeb and others scale their networks. Continued launches, ground-station deployment, and software refinements will determine how rapidly service quality improves and how affordable options become for a wider range of users.