---
license: cc-by-4.0
pretty_name: "Starlink Ground Stations & Points of Presence"
language:
  - en
description: "Worldwide Starlink gateway and Point of Presence locations from FCC IBFS filings and Starlink Insider. Updated daily."
task_categories:
  - tabular-classification
tags:
  - space
  - starlink
  - ground-stations
  - satellite-internet
  - geospatial
  - open-data
  - spacex
  - fcc
  - tabular-data
  - parquet
configs:
  - config_name: gateways
    data_files:
      - split: train
        path: data/gateways.parquet
    default: true
  - config_name: pops
    data_files:
      - split: train
        path: data/pops.parquet
size_categories:
  - n<1K
---

# Starlink Ground Stations & Points of Presence

<div align="center">
  <img src="banner.jpg" alt="An orbital sunrise illuminates the Earth's atmosphere, seen from the ISS" width="400">
  <p><em>Credit: NASA</em></p>
</div>

*Part of the [Orbital Mechanics Datasets](https://huggingface.co/collections/juliensimon/orbital-mechanics-datasets-69c24caca4ab3934c9856994) collection on Hugging Face.*

## Dataset description

Starlink ground infrastructure data: gateway earth stations and internet Points of Presence (PoPs). Gateway earth stations maintain continuous Ka-band and Ku-band links with the overhead satellite constellation -- when a user terminal communicates with a Starlink satellite, the signal is relayed down to the nearest gateway, which connects to the terrestrial internet backbone.

SpaceX has been aggressively expanding its gateway network worldwide to reduce "bent-pipe" latency and increase aggregate network capacity. The Points of Presence (PoPs) serve a different function: these are internet exchange points in major cities where Starlink peers with other networks and content delivery providers.

This dataset is valuable for network performance modeling, regulatory analysis of Starlink's global expansion strategy, and visualization of the ground infrastructure that supports the world's largest satellite constellation.

## Configs

### `gateways` -- 303 ground stations (250 operational, 53 planned)

Gateway earth stations that connect Starlink satellites to the terrestrial internet.

| Column | Type | Description |
|--------|------|-------------|
| `name` | -- | Location name (City, State/Country) of the Starlink gateway earth station; derived from FCC IBFS filings or Starlink Insider community data |
| `lat` | -- | Latitude in decimal degrees (WGS-84); precise to 4 decimal places for FCC-sourced stations, geocoded for Insider-sourced stations |
| `lon` | -- | Longitude in decimal degrees (WGS-84); precise to 4 decimal places for FCC-sourced stations, geocoded for Insider-sourced stations |
| `status` | -- | Operational status: 'operational' (live and serving traffic) or 'planned' (licensed/announced but not yet active); derived from Starlink Insider or FCC filing status codes |

### `pops` -- 52 Points of Presence

Internet exchange points where Starlink traffic exits to the public internet.

| Column | Type | Description |
|--------|------|-------------|
| `code` | -- | DNS prefix code from Starlink reverse DNS hostnames (e.g., 'lax', 'frntdeu'); identifies the PoP in customer.<code><N>.isp.starlink.com patterns; null for locations not yet observed in rDNS |
| `city` | -- | City name where the Point of Presence is located; sourced from PeeringDB facility registrations for SpaceX AS54184/AS35340 |
| `country` | -- | ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code (e.g., 'US', 'DE', 'JP') |
| `lat` | -- | Latitude in decimal degrees (WGS-84) of the facility |
| `lon` | -- | Longitude in decimal degrees (WGS-84) of the facility |

## Quick stats

- **303** gateway earth stations (250 operational, 53 planned)
- **52** Points of Presence across 28 countries
- Coverage spans -53.2 to 70.3 latitude

## Usage

```python
from datasets import load_dataset

# Load gateways
gateways = load_dataset("juliensimon/starlink-ground-stations", "gateways", split="train")

# Load PoPs
pops = load_dataset("juliensimon/starlink-ground-stations", "pops", split="train")

# Operational stations only
operational = gateways.filter(lambda x: x["status"] == "operational")

# Map gateway distribution with matplotlib
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
df = gateways.to_pandas()
op = df[df["status"] == "operational"]
pl = df[df["status"] == "planned"]
plt.scatter(op["lon"], op["lat"], c="green", label="Operational", s=20)
plt.scatter(pl["lon"], pl["lat"], c="orange", label="Planned", s=20)
plt.xlabel("Longitude")
plt.ylabel("Latitude")
plt.legend()
plt.title("Starlink Ground Stations")
plt.show()
```

## Data sources

- [Starlink Insider](https://starlinkinsider.com/starlink-gateway-locations/) -- community-maintained list with operational status
- [FCC IBFS](ftp://ftp.fcc.gov/pub/Bureaus/International/databases/) -- US earth station license filings
- [OpenStreetMap Nominatim](https://nominatim.openstreetmap.org/) -- geocoding for stations without coordinates
- [PeeringDB](https://www.peeringdb.com/) -- SpaceX AS54184/AS35340 facility registrations for PoP locations

## Update schedule

Daily at 09:00 UTC via [GitHub Actions](https://github.com/juliensimon/space-datasets).

## Related datasets

- [juliensimon/starlink-fleet-data](https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/starlink-fleet-data) -- Daily Starlink constellation health snapshots
- [juliensimon/space-track-satcat](https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/space-track-satcat) -- NORAD satellite catalog
- [juliensimon/space-launch-log](https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/space-launch-log) -- Global launch history from GCAT

## Citation

```bibtex
@dataset{starlink_ground_stations,
  title = {Starlink Ground Stations & Points of Presence},
  author = {juliensimon},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/starlink-ground-stations},
  publisher = {Hugging Face}
}
```

## License

[CC-BY-4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)