Al over the US, internet access is available, but all connections are not created equal. From its popular Speedtest app, Ookla has taken data to highlight the areas where users are stuck with Satellite internet. These satellite-heavy ZIP codes cover a remarkable portion of the country, but there are very few people who live there.
Since the early 90s, the satellite internet has been available to users. The experience wasn’t much different than slow wired dial-up internet in those days. And, today, Satellite internet is at a critical disadvantage when it comes to speed and reliability. Even the newer generation band signals are not capable of delivering multi-megabit speeds.
The Ookla data is organized by ZIP codes. People opt for satellite internet only when they have no other option. It’s even slower than the wired connections, and the data caps are hugely more oppressive. HughesNet offers 25Mbps downloads, but the data cap could be as low as 20GB, depending on your plan. The moment you cross the limit, the speeds drop to sub-broadband. These people risk being left behind as the internet evolves to rely on faster connections.
Mobile carriers have spent on lip-service to use 4G LTE as a home internet option, but the data caps and speeds are nevertheless too low. In the future, 5G might provide an alternative, but there’s still a lot of infrastructure waiting to be expanded. Possibly a new generation of satellite internet could solve the issue. With hopes to provide fast, low-latency internet to a wide swath of the globe, Elon Musk’s SpaceX is placing the Starlink satellite system. As of now, with 5G, it’s too quick to identify if Starlink will appreciably boost rural internet speeds.
