Philippines now Starlink’s 6th largest market

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February 6, 2026 | 12:00am

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines is now the world’s sixth largest and Asia’s second biggest in terms of number of customers subscribed to satellite operator Starlink.

In a study, leading internet speed tester Ookla said the Philippines accounts for 4.2 percent of Starlink’s 9.2 million customers globally.

This makes the country Starlink’s sixth largest market after the US (22.5 percent), Mexico (5.7 percent), Indonesia (5.3 percent), Brazil (4.9 percent) and Canada (4.3 percent).

Ookla said Starlink provides an average speed of 55.47 Mbps in the Philippines. In comparison, this is far inferior to the country’s average broadband speed of 102.79 Mbps, but only slightly better than the mobile average of 54.13 Mbps, based on Ookla’s latest index.

Still, Starlink turns in better numbers when compared to its counterparts in the satellite business. Starlink relies on its constellation of low earth orbit (LEO) satellites, which are stationed closer to the surface than geostationary (GEO) satellites.

Owned by billionaire Elon Musk’s brainchild SpaceX, Starlink operates a constellation of 10,790 satellites to date. These units are responsible for beaming internet onto the ground anytime, anywhere.

Since they are up in space, satellites are also unbothered by natural disturbances like earthquakes and typhoons, so they are capable of connecting networks during emergency situations.

Ookla said Starlink leads the race to space, with its competitors like Kacific Broadband Satellites failing to keep up with its level of resilience in broadband service.

Kacific, which offers satellite-based connectivity in Asia-Pacific, posted a latency of 599 milliseconds in the Philippines in the third quarter of 2025. Latency is the time it takes for data to be transferred from one source to another, so the shorter it is, the better for consumers.

Ookla said this is no longer surprising since Kacific operates GEO satellites, which are about 65 times farther away from the ground as opposed to LEO satellites. Latency-wise, Starlink is miles ahead of competitors, especially as it is developing new products.

In January, local telco Globe Telecom Inc. signed a memorandum of agreement with Starlink for the deployment of the trailblazing direct-to-cell service in the Philippines.

The innovation, once activated, will allow Globe to achieve 100-percent coverage in the country, as Starlink will be transmitting bandwidth to areas where the telco is currently absent.