Hughesnet Files for Bankruptcy After Bleeding Customers to Starlink
Satellite internet provider Hughesnet filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Sunday night, citing increased competition from Elon Musk’s Starlink internet service.
The company has been hemorrhaging subscribers since Starlink burst onto the scene in 2020. At that point, Hughesnet had about 1.56 million subscribers. That number has since dropped to 641,000.
Starlink’s satellites operate roughly 342 miles above the ground in low Earth orbit, compared with over 22,000 miles for geostationary satellites like the ones Hughesnet uses. That lower altitude allows Starlink to provide faster speeds and lower latency to customers, an advantage that Hughesnet’s chief restructuring officer, Robert Del Genio, pointed to directly in a court filing Sunday.
“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...
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