Starlink vs. HughesNet vs. ViaSat: Which Satellite Internet Provider Is Best?

pcmag.com:

When it comes to internet service providers, your choices come down to the old adage about real estate: location, location, and location. Your choice of ISP is limited to what's available in your area, leaving you at the mercy of whichever service providers happen to provide connectivity in your city, town, or neighborhood. Moving to get better service probably isn't an option, and for many rural areas, cable and fiber connections aren't on the menu, either, leaving you stuck using either phone-line-based DSL or satellite internet.

That's one of the major reasons that SpaceX's Starlink internet has gotten people so excited. A relative newcomer in the satellite ISP space, Starlink promises speedy internet pretty much anywhere on the planet. And we've tested it, proving that it does indeed offer speeds that will let you work, stream, and even game online, all using an internet service that you can literally take with you on a road trip.

But what people want to know isn't merely "Does Starlink work?" The real question is whether it's better than whatever other ISP options they're considering, especially competing satellite ISPs like HughesNet or ViaSat.

Using data from major industry surveys, we can compare Starlink speeds to other major competitors, giving you a clearer picture of how the SpaceX internet service stacks up against whichever services are available in your area. For this article, we specifically are referencing data from Ookla's Q3 2022 survey of satellite internet(Opens in a new window) providers. (Ookla is owned by Ziff Davis, PCMag's parent company.) It looks broadly at North America, including Canada, Mexico, and island nations like the Dominican Republic. For our purposes, the US data is what's