After Boats And RVs, Now Starlink Service Is Coming To Planes

If you’ve ever used Wi-Fi on a plane, you’ll notice the service can fluctuate from sort of okay to slow, spotty, and borderline unusable. According to Starlink, that isn’t the case with its Aviation package. The company says its service is so good that customers can enjoy ” video calls, online gaming, virtual private networks and other high data rate activities” while up in the air. Starlink also promises global coverage, with its web of satellites covering most of the land, sea, and even parts of the polar region. 

There are some notable exceptions, with countries like Iran, Russia, Venezuela, and China lacking coverage, according to Starlink’s map. Certain areas on the map, including a large portion of the United States, are also subject to a waitlist. It is currently unknown if the Aviation service receives priority in waitlisted areas, or if it is slowed during peak hours like Starlink RV. It is also unknown whether the service will work over large, unserviced countries like Russia or if those areas are a total dead zone for all of Starlink’s products.

With Starlink, passengers will be able to access high-speed, low-latency internet from the moment they walk on their plane → https://t.co/bcn8jvpKgi pic.twitter.com/mDDQou1ZA3

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) October 19, 2022

Starlink says the service can provide up to 350 Mbps  of bandwidth to each plane with the kit installed and an active subscription. That’s faster than basic Starlink, which hovers between 50 Mbps and 250 Mbps, but slower than its $500-a-month premium service, which can reach speeds of 500 Mbps. Latency can also be as low as 20ms. Starlink hasn’t said when its aviation service is due to take off, but those both rich enough and interested can put their email addresses on a reservation list.