Resources
Tools, sites and references for satellite connectivity
A curated collection of tools, websites, reports and videos to help you navigate the LEO satellite ecosystem.
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Outdated rules, new space race: modernising LEO spectrum policy (CSIS)
An 11-minute CSIS video (August 2025) in which Matt Pearl (CSIS) and Karina Perez (CCIA) argue that decades-old spectrum rules, notably the power limits shared between LEO and GEO systems, slow US LEO innovation, and explain what modernising them would mean for capacity and competition.
Starlink Network Update: SpaceX's official performance figures
SpaceX's own network report: ~200 Mbps median peak-hour download and 25.7 ms median latency in the US (mid-2025), 450 Tbps of cumulative capacity, 6 million+ customers, 7,800+ satellites, 100+ US gateway sites, and the third-generation satellite targets. The numbers to quote, and how to read them.
Europe steps up satellite capabilities amid doubts over Starlink (Bloomberg)
Bloomberg's 6-minute report (March 2025, 428,000 views) on Europe looking at Eutelsat OneWeb as a sovereign alternative to Starlink after the US paused support to Ukraine. We add what Europe actually did next: the IRIS² contracts and the 229-satellite OneWeb order of September 2026.
Starlink for Business: how to pick the right plan and dish (Nextiva)
A four-minute explainer from Nextiva (March 2025) on what a business buyer must know before ordering Starlink: how the service plans differ, which hardware fits which site, and when Starlink is the right fit for a company that fibre and cable do not reach. We add the 2026 prices and the questions the video does not ask.
T-Mobile Starlink direct-to-cell tested in the Rocky Mountains (DISHYtech)
An 11-minute independent field test (February 2025, 131,000 views) of T-Mobile's Starlink direct-to-cell service in the Colorado Rockies, filmed during the beta: what a standard phone could and could not do with satellite texting. We add what changed by September 2026 and what it means for enterprise mobility.
How Iridium and Globalstar changed the world: the first constellations (Scott Manley)
Scott Manley's 18-minute history (December 2023, 165,000 views) of the first LEO constellations: how Iridium and Globalstar were designed and launched in the 1990s, why both went bankrupt, and how they survived to serve today's maritime, aviation and IoT markets. The best single background piece on why constellations are hard.
Star Debug: open-source Starlink terminal manager for Android and iOS
Star Debug is a free, open-source Flutter app (Android and iOS) that reads the Starlink app's DebugData, shows terminal telemetry and alerts, and sends reboot, stow and GPS commands to the dish. 80 stars, last pushed August 2026, born from the Ukrainian volunteer initiative Narodnyi Starlink.
starlink-grpc-tools: the reference scripts for the Starlink dish's gRPC interface
The most used open-source toolkit for reading a Starlink terminal: Python scripts and a Docker image that pull status, obstruction, alert and history data from the dish's gRPC service and write it to text, InfluxDB, SQLite, MQTT or a Prometheus endpoint. Public domain, 706 stars, updated September 2026.
Hypatia: LEO satellite network simulation framework (ETH Zurich)
Hypatia is the reference open-source framework for simulating LEO networks: it generates a constellation and its routing over time (satgenpy), runs packet-level ns-3 simulations (ns3-sat-sim) and renders Cesium visualisations. From the IMC 2020 paper; 518 GitHub stars, last update May 2024.
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OpenSN: open-source emulator for large LEO satellite networks
OpenSN, from Beihang University, emulates LEO satellite networks with one container per node so that real routing software runs on every satellite and gateway. It scales across machines and builds mega-constellations 5 to 10 times faster than StarryNet. Published in IEEE TPDS, August 2025.
An FCC commissioner on spectrum allocation and broadband (TeleGeography podcast)
Episode 614 of TeleGeography's podcast (68 minutes, June 2025): host Greg Bryan interviews FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington on spectrum allocation and broadband expansion, recorded the week he left the Commission. The clearest hour on how US spectrum decisions get made, which is where every satellite operator's capacity starts.
starlink-client: Python library for the Starlink dish and account API
starlink-client (MIT, version 0.1.13, February 2025) wraps the Starlink terminal's local gRPC service and the account API in Python: account data, device location or H3 cell, network statistics, telemetry, and a remote reboot. Requires Python 3.9+.
Starlink Mini for remote business operations: Clarus Networks webinar
A 48-minute webinar (February 2025) by Clarus Networks, a UK Starlink authorised reseller, on using the Starlink Mini instead of 4G/5G for remote operations in energy, emergency services, mining and construction: 25 W power draw, around 200 Mbps download, and fleet management through the reseller's portal.
Ground stations explained: how satellite data reaches Earth (Geoawesome)
A 2.5-minute explainer (September 2024) from Geoawesome, the geospatial industry site, on what ground stations do, where they are placed and where ground-station-as-a-service is heading. Written for Earth observation, but the same ground segment is what gives a Starlink or OneWeb link its latency and its resilience.
FCC Space Bureau briefing: how satellite spectrum coordination works
A 50-minute recording of the FCC Space Bureau's 18 April 2024 transparency session on satellite spectrum coordination and Commission procedures, held one year after the Bureau's creation. The authoritative walkthrough of how operators coordinate frequencies and what the FCC expects in a filing.
Mega-constellations in three minutes: O3b mPOWER, OneWeb and Starlink
A concise academic explainer (November 2023) of non-geostationary constellations, comparing SES's O3b mPOWER in medium Earth orbit with OneWeb and Starlink in low Earth orbit, made alongside a Frontiers paper on connecting space missions through NGSO constellations. Good for the orbit and orbital-plane basics.
Project Kuiper (now Amazon Leo): Amazon's 2021 case for satellite broadband
Amazon's own 8-minute film (December 2021, 171,000 views) on why it is building a LEO constellation: residents and small businesses in Cle Elum, Washington, describe life without broadband, and the Project Kuiper team explains the plan. Five years on, Kuiper is Amazon Leo, with 398 satellites launched and an enterprise beta.
Starlink vs Amazon Kuiper vs OneWeb: the 2020 comparison (Found And Explained)
An 8-minute 2020 explainer comparing the three LEO broadband projects as they were planned: Starlink, Amazon's Kuiper and OneWeb, then in bankruptcy. Useful as a time capsule; we score the predictions against the 2026 reality: 11,000+ Starlink satellites working, 398 Amazon Leo launched, OneWeb at 600+ under Eutelsat.
Iridium Certus: L-band broadband for maritime, aviation and IoT (video)
A 2.5-minute product video (November 2019) from reseller Apollo Satellite presenting Iridium Certus, the multi-service L-band platform on the upgraded Iridium constellation for maritime, IoT, aviation, land mobile and government users. We explain what Certus is for in a Starlink world: the truly global, weather-proof, safety-grade fallback.
The FCC Spectrum Dashboard: who holds which frequencies (FCC video)
The FCC's own 2-minute introduction (2010, public domain) to its Spectrum Dashboard, the public tool that shows how bands between 225 MHz and 3.7 GHz are allocated, what they are used for and who holds licences where. Old, but the tool and the questions it answers are still current for anyone tracking direct-to-cell and mid-band spectrum.
Questions about the resources
- What is in the LeoSatNetwork resources section?
- Tools, datasets, official reports and videos we reviewed for the satellite connectivity sector: Starlink monitoring scripts, orbital data such as CelesTrak, tracking maps, SpaceX's own performance report, spectrum policy briefings and constellation explainers. Each entry carries our own write-up: what it is, what you can do with it, who it is for, and its limits.
- Are the resources free to use?
- Most are: the open-source tools, the orbital datasets, the videos and the official documents cost nothing. Commercial platforms (a NOC connector, a managed service, a space-tracking platform) are marked as such in their write-up, with what the free tier includes when there is one.
- How do you choose and check a resource?
- We keep a resource when it answers a practical question for a buyer, an installer, a reseller or an analyst, and when we could verify it on its source on a stated date: repository activity, publisher, publication date, figures. Dead links and low-value videos are archived rather than left in place.