Most satellite internet services rely on a single geostationary satellite positioned approximately 35,786 km above the Earth’s surface. Due to this considerable distance, the round trip data time between the user and the satellite—referred to as latency—is quite high. This elevated latency makes it nearly impossible to reliably support activities that require fast data transmission, such as streaming high-definition video, online gaming, video conferencing, or other data-intensive applications.

In contrast, Starlink operates a vast constellation of thousands of satellites orbiting much closer to Earth, at around 550 km altitude, providing global coverage. Because these satellites are in low Earth orbit (LEO), the latency is dramatically reduced to approximately 25 milliseconds, compared to over 600 milliseconds experienced with geostationary satellites. This significant reduction in latency enables a far better internet experience, supporting real-time applications with much greater efficiency.