Starlink and Cellular Connectivity under Mobility: Drive Testing Across the Arctic Circle

Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite networks such as Starlink can provide broadband connectivity in sparsely populated regions, including those located in arctic and subarctic regions. However, only satellites in a subset of inclination planes can serve these northern regions. In order to evaluate Starlink connectivity in these geographically extreme regions, we perform a drive test across the arctic circle measuring Starlink and cellular connectivity. We analyze the results with regards to Starlink throughput characteristics including the effects of the 15 second reconfiguration interval, and compare the throughput and connectivity. Starlink generally provide better throughput, with around 10x better median throughput than our comparison cellular network. However, the low tail of the distribution is less impressive with more frequent connectivity losses. Our results also show that the combination of Starlink and cellular has the potential to provide considerable gains in aggregated connection reliability and tail throughput. We additionally discuss policy implications relating to state subsidy policies designed to ensure that the whole population has access to broadband connectivity.