The latest survey from Ookla, for the last quarter of 2022, says that the Starlink satellite service was faster than fixed broadband in Austria, Belgium Croatia, the Czech republic, Germany, Ireland, Italy, and the UK, with speeds normally around 100Mbps, though the Czech republic scored only 64.67Mbps.

Fixed broadband providers were faster than satellite providers in Denmark, France, Netherlands and Poland, says Ookla. Results were too close to call in Sweden with fixed providers at 106.73Mbps and Starlink at 101.83Mbps, as well as Portugal with Starlink at 108.02Mbps and fixed broadband at 117.97Mbps.

Eutelsat’s Skylogic “was too close to call between the median fixed broadband speed in Italy”, says Ookla.

In general “we’ve seen the service speed up and then slow down year-over-year in most markets”, says Ookla.

It adds: “However, Q4 2022 data shows many countries are experiencing a modest rise in median download speeds when compared to Q3 2022. That’s encouraging for consumers, especially as Starlink hit over 1 million users in Q4 2022, and could be a sign that Starlink seems to be maturing its constellation’s capacity.”

Ookla says: “That’s particularly intriguing as Starlink launches more next-gen satellites, which were first deployed at the tail end of Q4 2022 and will most likely show up in Q1 2023 results.”