Satellite internet Starlink in the USA shows consistent speed growth, even though its subscriber base continues to expand rapidly. According to a recent report for 2026, based on Speedtest data for the first halves of 2025 and 2026, the most noticeable improvement was in upload speeds. Median upload speed increased by 42% reaching 20.73 Mbps, with gains recorded in every state and Washington D.C. ranging from 25% to 70%. One of the key reasons is the increased share of V2 Mini satellites, which now account for about two-thirds of the active constellation.
Download speed grows slower, but more users exceed FCC thresholds
Download speeds grew more modestly — by 12% to 119.71 Mbps, and in 16 states and Washington D.C., the median metric actually decreased. This is linked to the popularity of lower-cost plans that cap speeds at 100 Mbps. However, the share of Starlink users hitting the FCC broadband benchmark — 100 Mbps download and 20 Mbps upload — increased from 18.9% to 40%. Thus, even with modest growth in median download speed, the network is increasingly providing a baseline level of broadband access.
Latency: new gateways and lower orbits
National latency has remained almost unchanged on average, yet improved in 49 states and Washington D.C. The number of regions with a median ping below 40 ms rose from 11 to 25. According to the report, this was facilitated by new ground gateways and internet connection points located closer to users, as well as the lowering of some satellite orbits. This is vital for interactive scenarios — from video calls to online gaming, where latency is critical.
Subscriber base and geography: urban growth outpaces rural
The number of Starlink speed tests in the USA grew by 41.8% over the year. According to SpaceX, in Q3 2026, the company had 13.6 million subscribers worldwide — 1.6 million more than the previous quarter, with about one-fifth of users based in the USA. Starlink is increasingly attracting urban residents: the number of tests in cities increased by 73%, compared to 33% in rural areas. The fastest Starlink for download speeds was recorded in Utah, while Florida showed the worst results, and the Southeast USA as a whole proved to be the slowest region. Texas, Florida, and Washington were simultaneously among the states with the highest number of tests and in the bottom ten for speed, although even in Florida, the median upload speed grew by 50%.
Competition and prospects: what V3 satellites promise
Despite improvements, Starlink still trails behind fiber-optic providers and the three largest fixed-line internet operators: T-Mobile's median speed is nearly twice as high as SpaceX's satellite network. However, this may change with the mass deployment of Starlink V3 satellites, whose throughput is claimed to be ten times higher than V2 Mini. Their impact on statistics is expected to become noticeable as early as 2027.
