Starlink’s rise in popularity has not been without casualties. Hughesnet, a legacy satellite internet provider, has filed for bankruptcy after losing customers to Elon Musk’s business.
Hughesnet, which once boasted more than 1.5 million customers, recently filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 11. The company lost nearly one million subscribers since Starlink became available.
In contrast, Starlink is not showing any sign of slowing down as it hit 10 million users in February 2026. The service doubled its subscriber base in less than a year.
Explaining why their clients flocked to SpaceX’s Starlink, chief restructuring officer Robert Del Genio pointed to the difference in operating orbit. Starlink satellites are closer to the Earth at just 342 miles above the ground, compared to Hughesnet, whose satellites are farther away at 22,000 miles. The proximity allows Starlink customers to connect faster and with lower latency.
Del Genio said, “As LEO constellations have expanded and reduced costs for consumers, the Company’s competitors have directly entered markets that it historically served — offering a product that exceeds GEO broadband on the performance metrics that matter most to consumers: speed and latency.”
Independent testing corroborates Del Genio’s statement. Starlink achieves average download and upload speeds of 127 Mbps and 21 Mbps, respectively, with a latency of 39 ms. Hughesnet, however, offers 49 Mbps and 4 Mbps download and upload speeds, with a latency of 674 ms, or more than half a second.
Interestingly, SpaceX bought wireless spectrum worth $17 billion from Hughesnet’s parent company, EchoStar, last year. However, the cash injection was not enough to stop Hughesnet’s losses, which have reached $1.5 billion.
Hughesnet assures its customers that it will continue to provide internet service in the near future.
SpaceX launched the first batch of V3 Starlink satellites last month. Each of the next-gen satellites can deliver roughly ten times the V2 download speeds.
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