Tesla founder Elon Musk’s space venture SpaceX is working on bringing high-speed internet to flights. As per a report on The Verge, SpaceX’s VP of Starlink, Jonathan Hofeller told the publication that they were in talks with various airlines about the project.
“We have our own aviation product in development…,” Hofeller told The Verge. “We’ve already done some demonstrations to date, and looking to get that product finalized to be put on aircraft in the very near future,” he added.
Starlink has already launched 1800 satellites out of the planned 4,440 and plans to provide global coverage with high-speed broadband internet. Looks like those plans include commercial flights too. The service was meant for rural homes where fiber connections are not possible and the company promises speeds up to 100Mbps for downloads and 20Mbps for uploads. The service already has thousands of potential customers interested.
Hofeller said that the design of airline antennas would be similar to technology used in consumer terminals. The antennas would link with ground terminals to communicate to the satellites.
“The next generation of our constellation, which is in work, will have this inter-satellite connectivity,” Hofeller said.
