Starlink is an emerging satellite Internet service headed by Tesla founder Elon Musk. The plan is to dispel the poor reputation of satellite Internet and provide a meaningful service.

While it won't make much difference for urban and suburban areas, Starlink could be a huge boon for rural communities. Currently in beta, there is no data capacity cap. And now coverage ranges for this initial deployment are being presented.

PCMag obtained exclusive speed test data from Ookla, detailing where Starlink users are currently located. The company identified U.S. counties with at least 30 Starlink users, counting from December. It then compared Starlink's speeds to other traditional ISPs in the area. [With satellite Internet, there are a fixed number of satellites, and therefore a fixed number of people who can access it. Rural communities benefit the most from this service, but Ookla found a surprisingly large number of Starlink beta testers in Seattle, Chicago, and Minneapolis (where faster ISPs exist).

"I wouldn't be surprised to see massive demand for Starlink Internet," Shrihari Pandit, president and CEO of Stealth Communications, a New York-based fiber gigabit Internet service company, told Tom's Guide in an e-mail In an e-mail interview with Tom's Guide, he said. Speed and reliability of phone and cable companies, even in New York City, are frustrating for users."

Elon Musk said Starklink will target more northern areas along the Canadian border; according to Ookla, Washington State has the most users, but Santa Clara and Los Angeles counties in California (where SpaceX and Tesla have their headquarters) also have significant numbers of There are also a small number of users in Idaho. An even smaller number of users reside in Canyon County, Idaho; Cook County, Illinois; and Berrien County, Michigan.

"Based on Starlink's current satellite and ground station deployments, the highest link availability (uptime) is limited to the northern United States at this early stage," says Pandit. 'As additional satellites and orbital planes come online, southern locations will be opened to beta later this year. The result will be improved performance, link availability, and most importantly, Starlink will be able to handle more simultaneous users for a geographic area.