As part of a new partnership, United Airlines will soon begin offering “high-speed, low-latency” Wi-Fi to passengers courtesy of Starlink. The company states its “new gate-to-gate connectivity” will allow people to enjoy internet service at a scale other major airlines don’t provide.
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You’ll be able to watch movies on your favorite streaming service, hop on social media, do some online shopping, and even play video games on either the backseat screen or “personal devices simultaneously.” Testing for this service starts in early 2025. After that, it’ll begin rolling out to the first passenger flights later in the year.
United Airlines plans to expand Starlink Wi-Fi across its entire fleet, which consists of over 1,000 airplanes, “over the next several years.” And the best part is it’ll be free. No need to pay an extra fee or subscription. The service will be available to you the moment you enter the aircraft.
Inflight Wi-Fi is well-known for being not great as connections are unreliable. But there are valid reasons why Wi-Fi sucks on airplanes. Establishing an internet connection thousands of feet in the air is no easy task. As Business Insider explains, airlines have two options when it comes to having Wi-Fi. Planes can either connect to towers on the ground or satellites in space.
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The former is typically more reliable, however, if you’re flying over the ocean or mountains, signals are lost. Satellites solve this, but the tech can be unreliable. Starlink is different because it utilizes low Earth orbit satellites so data has a shorter distance to travel.
The brand claims its aviation service can support download speeds up to 220 Mbps and latency of less than 99 ms on planes. A recent video by the Wall Street Journal shows download speeds on a Starlink-powered flight are around 100 Mbps. A far cry from the supposed 220 Mbps, but still plenty fast.
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But the question remains: Will United Airlines’s new Wi-Fi service be that good? It’s hard to say although we wouldn’t surprised if the airline cost-saving cuts in the future.