Customers of SpaceX’s Starlink satellite broadband service reported fewer outages than DSL and cable according to a survey, but trailed fibre for reliability.

Recon Analytics surveyed more than 1,300 Starlink customers between 7 July 2023 and 5 July 2024. Most of the respondents are in predominantly rural (85 per cent) areas, with 5 per cent located in suburbs and 10 across urban areas.

Many Starlink customers came from small rural providers, or never had a home internet service provider before. The survey found 11 per cent of the subscribers are new to home internet.

The research company compared Starlink to DSL, AT&T Fiber, Verizon FiOS, Comcast, Charter, Cox, Optimum, Frontier, AT&T Internet, CenturyLink, T-Mobile fixed wireless access (FWA) and Verizon FWA.

The largest individual contributors to Starlink’s subscriber growth are CenturyLink, Charter Communication’s Spectrum and Frontier.

Based on more than 153,000 respondents, Starlink led across three customer satisfaction areas: internet speed, Wi-Fi routers not having to be reset and whether devices disconnected from networks.

“Starlink has been able to get 6,146 working satellites into orbit, providing significant capacity and reliability to its subscribers,” stated Roger Entner, founder and analyst at Recon Analytics. “It has also been able to manage bandwidth, even during peak hours.”

He noted Starlink’s router is among the most stable in the market.

Recon Analytics is also collecting component net promoter scores by looking at the customer experience across 16 different areas. Starlink is the winner in the “complete experience” category, while FWA came in second, followed by fibre.

“Most Starlink customers come from DSL providers or other satellite providers that are just not competitive when it comes to speeds and latency,” Entner wrote.

He noted Starlink needs to improve across three areas; billing support over the phone, technical support over the phone, and providing a better in-store experience.