Starlink Competitors: 7 Satellite, Fiber, Cable and 5G Alternatives (2026)

Starlink competes with much more than other satellite companies. For someone with fiber running past their house, the most relevant alternative may be a local internet provider. For a shipping company, it could be another satellite operator selling a managed connection at sea.

That distinction matters. A company can compete with SpaceX for business without offering a residential plan you can order today.

Below, I'll cover seven competitors across satellite internet, fiber, cable and 5G home broadband. The household prices are U.S. examples in U.S. dollars, checked on October 16, 2026. OneWeb and Amazon also compete internationally, but local licenses, capacity and partners determine where service can actually be supplied.

If you're weighing any of these against Starlink, check the offer at your own address alongside our Starlink price guide. A national starting price won't tell you what installation, equipment or a different local plan will cost.

Starlink Competitors Compared

The company sources and conditions for these figures are linked in each section. They're deliberately separated from measured Starlink performance: advertised tiers, typical ranges and preview claims answer different questions.

1. AT&T Fiber

AT&T Fiber is a useful place to start if you want to replace Starlink at home. Its fiber plans run from 300 Mbps to 5 Gbps, with equal advertised upload and download speeds. Availability still comes down to the individual property.

The current sales page shows 300 Mbps at $50 per month, 500 Mbps at $60 and 1 Gbps at $70, after eligible discounts. Taxes and fees are additional. Confirm the price and discount conditions in your address quote.

For someone regularly uploading large video files or backing up a computer, the upload capacity can be a bigger reason to switch than the download number. A faster download tier alone doesn't tell you how quickly your files will reach someone else.

AT&T says its fiber plans have no annual contract, internet data cap or equipment fee. That said, the 5 Gbps tier isn't available everywhere, and the company lists a 4.7 Gbps maximum for a single wired device on that service. Your Wi-Fi and devices can introduce further limits.

Unlike a dish installation, fiber requires a physical connection to your home. Confirm whether the quoted work includes bringing the line onto your property before treating the monthly bill as the full cost of switching.

2. Xfinity

Xfinity competes with Starlink through cable broadband. Its advertised U.S. offer lists 300 Mbps for $45 per month, 500 Mbps for $60 and 1 Gbps for $70, with the base price held for five years.

The offer is for new customers and requires automatic payments from a stored bank account and paperless billing. Taxes and fees are extra. Equipment and unlimited data are included, with no annual contract or early termination fee.

Interestingly, Xfinity describes this service as fiber-powered, while its terms say the connection into the property is coaxial cable. Ask for the upload figure on your address-specific broadband label before comparing it with symmetrical fiber.

Where both providers are available, the chart below shows how similar some monthly prices can be. The annual figure is twelve service payments, excluding taxes, installation, optional products and promotional credits.

3. T-Mobile Home Internet

T-Mobile uses its cellular network to connect a home gateway, which then supplies Wi-Fi to your devices. This makes 5G home internet worth checking in places where nobody has built a wired broadband connection to the house.

For the Amplified plan, T-Mobile's Broadband Facts label lists a $70 monthly price before automatic-payment or other discounts, plus applicable additional charges. It also lists a $35 connection charge, unlimited data and no yearly contract. Use that label alongside the checkout offer rather than assuming a bundled promotional price applies to everyone.

T-Mobile's performance disclosure puts Amplified and All-In at typical downloads of 170–498 Mbps, uploads of 12–55 Mbps and latency of 16–28 milliseconds. These ranges represent roughly the middle half of network tests, rather than minimum and maximum speeds.

That said, signal strength and capacity at the serving cell site still matter. A fast result on your phone doesn't establish that T-Mobile will accept a home internet order at the same address. Try the gateway where you'll actually use it, especially during the evening.

A home broadband plan also isn't the same product as satellite coverage for a phone. Our Starlink Direct to Cell guide explains that separate part of the market.

4. Hughesnet

Hughesnet remains a residential satellite alternative for people beyond the reach of wired broadband. Its current service page advertises download speeds up to 100 Mbps, professional installation and unlimited Standard Data.

The important detail is the distinction between Standard Data and Priority Data. Once your Priority Data is used, the connection continues on Standard Data. Unlimited use doesn't promise the same performance throughout the month.

Hughesnet also sells Fusion, which combines satellite and wireless connections to reduce latency. Its published example includes up to 100 Mbps downloads and 200 GB of Priority Data, at $94.99 per month for twelve months against a listed $119.99 price, with a 24-month commitment.

Before signing, request the total including equipment, installation and the second year's service charge. Check Fusion eligibility separately, too. Its wireless component means the product isn't simply interchangeable with a satellite-only connection.

If you're considering an ordinary geostationary plan, ask how it handles interactive games, video calls and a work VPN. A download figure doesn't describe the delay involved in sending a request and receiving a reply. Our Hughesnet comparison provides further background, while the linked provider pages establish the offers above.

5. Viasat

Viasat competes for rural households as well as customers in aviation, maritime and business connectivity. Its U.S. residential plans distinguish a baseline target up to 80 Mbps from temporary bursts up to 150 Mbps on Essentials, 180 Mbps on Unleashed and 200 Mbps on Unleashed Max.

Essentials starts at $39.99 per month for twelve months, then $69.99. Unleashed starts at $69.99, then $99.99; Unleashed Max starts at $109.99, then $179.99. The $15 monthly equipment lease is additional. Address-specific availability and terms apply.

Essentials includes 150 GB of High-Speed Data, followed by unlimited Standard Data with lower priority during congestion. That makes its advertised service and equipment total $54.99 per month in year one, before other charges.

Viasat's home internet terms list a twelve-month minimum for Essentials and no annual contract for Unleashed. Confirm the commitment on the exact order, since the wider plans page also contains references to other service terms.

A temporary burst doesn't establish the average speed of a large download. For more background on the satellite approaches, see our Starlink and Viasat comparison.

6. Eutelsat OneWeb

Eutelsat OneWeb is a more direct rival to Starlink's business services. The OneWeb constellation has more than 600 satellites across twelve orbital planes, operating at an altitude of 1,200 kilometers.

Its customers include telecom operators, governments and companies connecting sites, ships or aircraft. One practical example is Telstra's Australian rollout: OneWeb supplies the link behind remote mobile base stations. That's a different sale from putting a residential dish on somebody's roof.

The company has continued expanding its hardware options. In February 2026, Eutelsat and Intellian announced a portable manpack terminal for government and defense users.

For a business buyer, the useful comparison is the partner's full proposal: committed capacity, download and upload rates, equipment, support and the service-level agreement. There's no single worldwide residential price that makes those packages comparable.

Nor should the altitude alone be used to calculate a customer's real latency. Ground stations, routing and the destination network also affect the trip. Our OneWeb and Starlink comparison has more background on the two networks.

7. Amazon Leo

Amazon Leo, previously called Project Kuiper, is the competitor to watch if you're interested in another large low Earth orbit network. Amazon's October 14 mission update reports nearly 400 satellites launched across fourteen missions, following the first full-scale deployment launch in April 2025.

The manufacturing number is much larger. On October 8, Amazon said it had built more than 1,000 satellites. Those figures describe different stages: a completed satellite at the factory isn't necessarily in orbit or delivering customer traffic.

Amazon's enterprise preview announcement gives its Ultra terminal claimed download speeds up to 1 Gbps and uploads up to 400 Mbps. It also describes private connections into AWS and other enterprise networks, plus testing with selected business customers.

That could make Amazon particularly interesting to companies already running their operations on AWS. Connecting remote equipment directly to a private network is a different proposition from simply supplying household internet access.

For a household, the remaining question is more practical: can you order service at your address, at what price, and under which data terms? The cited deployment and preview announcements don't establish a general residential offer. Confirm those details before cancelling an existing connection. Our Amazon and Starlink comparison covers the project's background.

How to Compare an Alternative With Starlink

Start with availability at the property. In the U.S., the FCC National Broadband Map can help identify providers reporting service at a location. Follow that with an actual order check, since a map listing doesn't settle installation work or current capacity.

Then compare the whole bill. Add twelve months of service, hardware purchases or rentals, installation and activation. Check what happens after a discount ends, and whether leaving early creates another charge.

For home working, look at uploads and latency alongside downloads. For heavy streaming, read the priority-data rules. For a boat or moving vehicle, confirm that the plan and equipment explicitly support that use. A home plan's performance tells you very little about permission to use it in motion.

Finally, test the replacement before giving up a working connection if you can. A provider's national speed range can't tell you how a crowded local cell site, a difficult installation or your evening workload will behave.