Viasat loses half of its subscribers after Starlink launch

Communications company Viasat has lost more than half of its fixed broadband subscribers since SpaceX started offering Starlink services to the public in 2020.

Viasat said in a shareholder letter that it had ended the first quarter of the fiscal year 2025 with 257,000 subscribers in the United States – a decrease from 603,000 reported in September 2020, just before the launch of Starlink services.

SpaceX started offering Starlink services to first users in November 2020 and now has over 1.4 million customers in the United States, according to the company’s letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

Viasat’s latest figure is reportedly the first time the company has publicly disclosed its broadband subscriber number since May 2021, when it was already down to 590,000 users.

Earlier this year, satellite internet provider HughesNet also reported losing about 224,000 subscribers in 2023, finishing the year with 1 million customers, down from 1.56 million in December 2020.

Both Viasat and HughesNet lag behind Starlink despite entering the satellite internet market years earlier. Both companies now introduced plans offering improved connectivity at lower prices in order to compete. To match Starlink, Viasat has also dropped data caps.

In a shareholder letter, Viasat said it is generating $115 of average revenue per user, an increase from just over $102 in 2020.