COMPARING STARLINK TO OTHER INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDERS (ISPs)

COMPARING STARLINK TO OTHER INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDERS (ISPs)

How STARLINK compares to other local internet service providers

Comparing Starlink to traditional internet service providers (ISPs) involves evaluating various factors such as coverage, speed, latency, reliability, installation, and cost. Here are some factors you need to consider before you purchase a STARLINK hardware or other ISPs. 

• Coverage

Starlink:

When it comes to global coverage, STARLINK uses a constellation of low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites, which is able to provide service in rural and remote areas where terrestrial ISPs have limited reach, a this has been made quite possible through the continuous launching of satellites by STATLINK to improve global coverage.

Traditional ISPs:

Most traditional ISPs like MTN, GLO, Airtel (Routers or Modems), SPECTRANET or CobraNet have fixed coverage and rely on terrestrial infrastructures like fiber-optic cables, DSL, or cable networks, which are primarily available in urban and suburban areas, they also have limited network reach (Often lacking presence in remote or rural locations due to high infrastructure costs).

These traditional ISPs also occasionally experience downtime for hours and sometimes days due to damages to their undersea cables.

• Speed

Starlink:

Starlink’s download speed typically ranges from 20Mbps to 150 Mbps, with potential for higher speeds as more satellites are deployed, it’s upload speed also clocks about 5 Mbps to 20 Mbps.

Traditional ISPs:

Generally, traditional ISPs offer slower speeds, ranging from 10 Mbps to 100 Mbps depending on the quality of the copper lines and distance from the central office, but sometimes record high speeds in Gigabytes.

• Reliability

Starlink:

Starlink can be affected by severe weather conditions, though it has proven to be generally robust during heavy rainfall.

Traditional ISPs:

Traditional ISPs rely heavily on fiber-optic technology which is highly reliable and less affected by weather conditions, they’re quite reliable but can be impacted by local infrastructure issues and network congestion.

• Installation and Setup

Both STARLINK and Other Traditional ISPs come with either a satellite dish and router or mifi hardware device that users can set up for themselves,

 

 

• Cost

Starlink:

Initial costs of a STARLINK hardware is around N440,000 from the company (for the satellite dish and router) with potential additional costs: Shipping fees and possible additional equipment for specific needs not included, but most retailers in Lagos and Abuja sell for a price range of N580,000-N620,000. It’s monthly subscription fee is approximately N38,000 per month.

Traditional ISPs:

These ISPs have varied pricing which is quite flexible and depends on the service type, provider and user’s choice.