How Starlink and Others are Going to Supercharge Airplane Wi-Fi | WSJ

Buffering, error messages, dropped connections. In-flight Wi-Fi stinks. But that’s about to change thanks to new low-earth orbit satellite technology.

WSJ’s Joanna Stern found out why planes still use old 3G tech and tested Elon Musk’s Starlink and Intelsat’s low-earth orbit satellite tech from 30,000 feet.

Chapters:
0:00 In-flight Wi-Fi
1:14 The old cellular tech
4:16 The new Starlink tech
5:49 The perfect LEO + GEO satellite combo
7:46 Other in-flight Wi-Fi answers

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#Flights #Tech #WSJ

[sasstewart]

Travelers worst nightmare: the person sitting next to you video calling on speaker phone 😤

[_Gamer]

When a lot of people start streaming 4k movies, that would be the true test for the internet reliability.

[XCHDragox]

As someone who uses Starlink for home internet, I can say yeah its really fast. Excited to see how airlines will use it for their planes.

[justinleemiller]

The subway and flights were the last places I actually read books. I guess that’s over now.

[LukeMaximoBell]

I kind of like how flights don’t have internet.

[shaggydogsales]

Click bait title and i suspect paid advertising for Intelsat who is trying to stay relevant in the new starlink world of communication.

[xavierrr_eli]

The irony being that I am watching this WHILE on an airplane LOL

[YigitBurcu-fitz]

That XAI650K is everywhere and rightfully so

[natllite]

Was on a cruise with starlink. Insanely impressive. Must’ve been hundreds if not thousands connect in the middle of the ocean.

[NC-qcwd]

A good or two books on a flight will make you feel better connected.

[voiceoverguyharris]

The thought of taking a flight and watching Netflix, fantastic ... however...having a person next to me on a Teams meeting or Zoom call depresses me. How annoying would that be!

[jajefan]

Another major +1 for high speed rail. When I travelled China’s HSR network this summer, I had a solid 5G cell connection 99% of the time, even out into the rural countryside. Rail has never had to deal with having to ping satellites for connections. It’s a shame the US doesn’t have a single true HSR corridor anywhere. Japan is even building its first maglev line at this very moment, while we still await our first 120mph train. It’s about time we built one and caught up to the rest of the world.

[chyldstudios]

Starlink is a revolutionary product. There is no second place.

[TroyRubert]

Thank you SpaceX and Elon for Starlink.

[elibar]

This gives a whole new meaning to working in the cloud

[betterchapter]

I can’t fathom this being just for internet

[edthelazyboy]

I think it will be at least another decade before we have cheap, fast WiFi for all passengers on a typically packed flight. The other question is if websites and apps will be even more data hungry by then. Maintaining and upgrading electronics on airlines is very expensive. Everything has to be FAA certified and airlines already run on tight profit margins. So tech installed today stays there for a long time.

[matthewjames]

This episode is so padded out. Could be summarised in 20 seconds

[bdms]

that was the only silent space we still had... imagine your odd uncle facetiming you on loud speaker just because he's bored... and you're 5 rows ahead... seriously... stop doing this. I like my flights quiet.

[TheWolfHowling]

4:35 I seem to remember hearing somewhere that Starlink also enables the WiFi on Brightline's Florida trains. However, with passengers having access to their cellular connections, fast WiFi isn't as important