More rural areas linking to Starlink

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March 30, 2026 | 12:00am

MANILA, Philippines — Satellite internet provider Starlink is becoming a preferred broadband service in rural communities in the Philippines, although several users are reportedly abusing their monthly subscription to offer low-cost connectivity.

An independent study from Opensignal showed that Starlink is adding more subscribers in rural areas where Filipinos are struggling to access the web in the absence of fiber infrastructure.

Starlink’s win share went up to 4.3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2025, from 3.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2024.

Opensignal measures a provider’s win share by the percentage of new subscribers who decided to jump from another network. However, Starlink’s win share in urban Philippines slowed to 0.7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2025, from 1.1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2024.

Still, Starlink is expanding market reach in emerging markets such as the Philippines, exploiting specific locations where terrestrial options have failed to scale. Right now, the provider is being picked as a first choice by some Filipinos despite its premium cost.

Opensignal principal data analyst Robert Wyrzykowski said Filipinos have to pay 175 percent of monthly average income to avail themselves of Starlink services.

“Conversely, in regions like Nigeria, the Philippines and Indonesia, demand is so robust that the service frequently sells out,” Wyrzykowski said.

“With long waiting lists and a lack of viable alternatives, such as well-developed 5G FWA (fixed wireless access) services, Starlink has little incentive to lower entry barriers in regions where it is already operating at peak capacity,” he added.

However, Starlink is beginning to regulate the bandwidth of Filipino subscribers trying to abuse its internet from space. Starlink is sending e-mails to residential customers found misusing their monthly service to offer sachet-sized connectivity, or piso WiFi.

“As outlined in our terms of service, business or enterprise use is prohibited. We have identified activity on your account that violates these terms,” read an e-mail seen by The STAR.

“As a result, network management measures have been applied to temporarily reduce your speed for the remainder of your current billing cycle,” the e-mail added.

Starlink is owned by the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, and relies on a constellation of low earth orbit satellites to beam internet onto the ground.