SPACE X
SpaceX wants to demonstrate to the world that its Starlink satellite system is capable of providing access to Netflix and YouTube at an altitude of 9,000 meters above the ground. For this, the company carried out a test flight on the aircraft of its first customer, the regional airline JSX. The flight was attended by journalists from Bloomberg and other publications(image above).
“I'm thrilled,” said JSX CEO Alex Wilcox, who was aboard a plane over California and tried to surf the web and make WhatsApp calls. “Exceeded all my expectations.”
The data transfer rate of the Starlink system during the flight, according to the Ookla app, constantly exceeded 100 Mbps. There were about a dozen people on board who were testing the speed and quality of communication. Additional onboard devices simulated a system load of 20 to 30 passengers.
In comparison, the data rate on board an American Airlines Airbus with Viasat equipment and more than 100 passengers is around 2.2 Mbps.
The short flight from Burbank to San Jose was Elon Musk's first attempt to take some business away from satellite providers Intelsat and Viasat, which service thousands of aircraft. “Is Starlink a serious competitor? Yes, said Jeff Sare, president of commercial aviation at Intelsat, a leading provider of wireless services to airlines. “However, we do not believe that anyone can defeat us.”
The downside to Musk's technology is that his small satellites have relatively little bandwidth and may simply not be able to handle passenger Internet traffic on large planes in crowded skies or in the busy airports of major tourist centers. However, SpaceX says such pessimistic predictions do not take into account the pace of development of the system. Among the undeniable advantages of Starlink are the fast propagation of the signal and the size of the antenna.
The Starlink Flat Antenna is the size of a pizza box. It's less bulky than the rotating antennas commonly used by other satellite providers, so it takes up little space on board. This is of great importance for airlines that operate small regional aircraft, such as Brazil's Embraer, which flies the JSX.
“The antenna is definitely an advantage in terms of getting commercial contracts to provide in-flight Internet communications for regional aircraft,” said Louis DiPalma, analyst at William Blair & Co. “Airlines are planning to upgrade old, slow internet systems on over 1,000 aircraft over the next few years, and Starlink is the main competitor for these contracts.”
US regulators denied Elon Musk's $866 million government subsidy, citing "underdeveloped Starlink technology". In response, Starlink claims to be able to service aircraft of all sizes and cites an agreement with Hawaiian Airlines to service Airbus and Boeing. Regarding the subsidy denial, the company said employees were evaluating the data rate at the time the subsidy was requested, not the rate that would be expected when the entire Starlink network was launched.
"The agreements with JSX and Hawaiian are an opportunity for Starlink," said telecom analyst Roger Entner. “This is proof of possibility. Once Starlink technology works in JSX, it will gradually start working everywhere.”
According to NSR, a satellite and space industry researcher, around 10,000 commercial aircraft are already equipped with onboard Wi-Fi systems, and by 2031 their number will exceed 36,000. By 2031, annual revenue in this market is expected to reach more than $7.3 billion compared to $1.9 billion in 2021.
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