The team behind SpaceX Starlink’s growing satellite internet network is talking to “several” airlines to deliver internet to their aircraft, the project’s vice president said during a conference panel on Wednesday. Expanding Starlink from rural homes and on airlines is an expected move for Elon Musk’s space company as it races to open up the broadband network commercially later this year.
“We’re chatting with several companies,” SpaceX’s vice president of Starlink and commercial sales, Jonathan Hofeller, told a panel at the Connecting Intelligence Sum on Wednesday. “We have our own aviation product in development … we’ve already done some demonstrations so far, and aim for that product to end up being put on airplanes in the very near future.”
Since 2018, SpaceX has launched nearly 1,800 Starlink satellites out of the approximately 4,400 it needs to provide global broadband internet, primarily for rural homes where fiber connections are not available. The company is in the midst of a beta phase of Starlink, which promises up to 100Mbps download and 20Mbps upload speeds, with tens of thousands of users to date. Most pay $ 99 monthly for internet under that beta, via a $ 499 bundle of self-aligning Starlink dish and Wi-Fi router.
Last year, SpaceX subted plans to try Starlink on five Gulfstream jets. And in March, SpaceX sought FCC approval to use Starlink with so-called Ground Stations on the Move – an industrial jargon to refer to essentially any vehicle that would receive a signal, including cars, trucks, marine vessels, and aircraft. Musk explained at the time on Twitter: “Not connecting Tesla cars to Starlink, because our terminal is much too big. This is for planes, ships, large trucks and campers.” Another FCC recording last Friday called for approval to test through five U.S. states upgraded receiver with square-shaped antenna, a basic design commonly associated with aircraft antennas.
Hofeller said the design for SpaceX’s airline antennas will be very similar to the technology in its consumer terminals, but “with obvious improvements for aviation connectivity.” Like those consumer antennas, the aircraft hardware will be designed and built by SpaceX, he said. The aerial antennas could connect with ground stations to communicate with Starlink satellites.
For Starlink to provide connectivity to aircraft flying over distant parts of the ocean, away from ground stations, inter-satellite links will be needed – a capability in which satellites talk to each other using laser links without first bouncing signals from ground stations. “The next generation of our constellation that works will have this inter-satellite connectivity,” Hofeller said.
Competition is fierce between Musk’s Starlink network and the growing industry of low-orbit satellite internet providers. New competitors include so-called Amazon mega-constellations by Jeff Bezos, which has yet to launch any of its planned 3,000 satellites, and the UK’s OneWeb, which has launched 182 satellites out of about 640 planned. All of these satellites will be in low Earth orbit, a domain below the farther geofixed orbits of larger Internet satellites that currently provide Internet services to commercial aircraft.
Established U.S. competitors for in-flight Internet are Intelsat and ViaSat, which operate satellite networks in geofixed orbit. ViaSat recently announced plans to use its next-generation satellite network on Delta’s main fleet. The California company is planning its own network of 300 low-orbit satellites as well as a new geostationary trio that will begin launching early next year. It’s already a tough competitor to SpaceX. ViaSat has threatened to sue the Federal Communications Commission for failing to conduct an environmental review of a recent Starlink modification.
SpaceX seems confident that it can survive the more established competition. “Overall passengers and customers want a great experience [geostationary] systems simply cannot provide, “Hofeller said on the panel.” So it will depend on the individual airline whether they want to respond to that or whether they are willing to have a system that does not meet the demand of their customers. “
OneWeb, which was taken out of bankruptcy last year by British government and Indian telecommunications giant Bharti Global, is also targeting in-flight internet services with its constellation and has been much more public with its plans than SpaceX. Asked by the panel moderator when customers can expect to use in-flight internet with some of the competing satellite networks currently expanding in low Earth orbit, BenW Griffin, vice president of OneWeb on mobile services, estimated “the middle part of next year … maybe earlier. ” Airlines want to see developed hardware and services that work first, he added.
“We’ve been talking to airlines for quite some time, so there’s no lack of interest,” Griffin said during the same panel. Hofeller of SpaceX was brave when the question turned to him— “What Ben said is correct. People want to see the hardware, they want to see the constellation, and that’s why we travel as hard as we can as fast as possible. When will the announcement be? To be determined. I don’t know. Hopefully sooner rather than later. “