How Satellite Internet Is Revolutionizing Disaster Response and Humanitarian Relief
Hurricane Maria in 2017 damaged 95% of cell towers in Puerto Rico, leaving the island largely without phone service. SpaceX’s Starlink uses a low-Earth-orbit (LEO) satellite constellation of hundreds to thousands of satellites, lowering latency to about 20–40 ms with ~600 ms for geostationary satellites. Starlink can deliver 100–200 Mbps per user, versus about 25 Mbps on legacy satellite links. Ground terminals are plug-and-play, roughly pizza-box-sized dishes that require only a power source and a clear view of the sky to connect. In Ukraine since 2022, SpaceX shipped thousands of Starlink terminals, with tens of thousands in operation, becoming essential
