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Starlink Aviation

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Re: Starlink Aviation

#351
post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems inevitable Starlink will prioritize profitable commercial ventures first. Industry is going to find more data intensive applications and squeeze out residential use.

The way Starlink works SpaceX has no means to prioritize airplanes over residential. If you wait for service in residential area it's because it's oversubscribed and SpaceX has to put more satellites in orbit or build more ground station. Those satellites are the same that support airplanes so they benefit all use cases. The issue is coverage i.e. bandwidth per area. The way Starlink works is that bandwidth (satellit…

They already prioritize business service over residential service and residential service over RV/residential+roaming service. This just adds another priority above business service.

Re: Starlink Aviation

#352

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a very US-centric (or at least western-centric) view of the world.

I didn't think a lot of the cities can get fiber to the home. I know I can't in NYC and when I was in LA, nor in Ft Lauderdale. Is it easier in most other big cities?

The last two places I lived in NYC did have fiber to the apartment, so it’s not NYC as a whole that doesn’t have it.

Re: Starlink Aviation

#353

Slightly off-topic. I hate that internet is becoming more common on flights. One of my favorite things about flying is that it's a good chunk of time where you disconnect and don't worry about emails or messages. Just sit back and watch a movie or listen to music. Or catch up on sleep.

To be fair, I fly about 30 times per year, and in the last ten years, I've found that the in-flight wifi actually worked approximately once.

Re: Starlink Aviation

#355

Slightly off-topic. I hate that internet is becoming more common on flights. One of my favorite things about flying is that it's a good chunk of time where you disconnect and don't worry about emails or messages. Just sit back and watch a movie or listen to music. Or catch up on sleep.

To be fair you can always choose to disconnect for a period of time.

I understand if your job expects you to be online when possible but if you have difficulty disconnecting without an external pressure to be online you could consider talking to a therapist to help you manage your reliance, especially if it's bothering you significantly.

Re: Starlink Aviation

#356
post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m sorry if I was unclear. I do not mean spaceX should stay away, but that they should operate through normal routes. It might take a bit longer, but should make this ongoing drama less likely to happen.

What do you mean "normal routes"? Also time is of the essence during war. Viasat which had been the primary satellite communication method of the Ukrainian military was completely knocked out with many viasat terminals across Europe irreparably destroyed by Russian cyberattack when the war broke out.

They should have sold airtime and terminals to the military and worked with humanitarian organisations for civilian use.

Point is that there must be clear expectations and obligations on both sides to hopefully prevent stupid disputes and drama.

Re: Starlink Aviation

#357

I wonder if this also means future astronauts will have wifi when launching to moon/mars. Imagine watching watching a movie while taking off to somewhere distant

If only they'd invent a way to watch movies without streaming them!

Re: Starlink Aviation

#358

Once upon a time, all plane transmissions were pretty much air to ground. As inconsequential as it may seem, the positioning of antennas above the plane are a bit metaphoric for flipping things up side down. Looking out into space instead of back to earth. Also notable that SpaceX keeps finding these cool (revenue generating) use cases to further cheapen the cost of sending things up to space. Pretty much dogfooding…

> In-flight wifi (and otherwise all other transmissions) have pretty much always been air to ground This has not been the case for several years. Most in flight Wifi is now being provided by Viasat which, as the name suggests, is air to space. Even Gogo started rolling out satellite service in 2015. Very few services are now air-to-ground. Random pictures: https://i.stack.imgur.com/I7Yfd.jpg https://cdn.arstechnica.n…

There's a new air-to-ground provider though: https://smartskynetworks.com/connectivity/

(I worked on this technology)

Re: Starlink Aviation

#359
post #353

Slightly off-topic. I hate that internet is becoming more common on flights. One of my favorite things about flying is that it's a good chunk of time where you disconnect and don't worry about emails or messages. Just sit back and watch a movie or listen to music. Or catch up on sleep.

To be fair, I fly about 30 times per year, and in the last ten years, I've found that the in-flight wifi actually worked approximately once.

I have the same flight stats and I have only had to ask for a refund once because it straight up didn’t work for most of the flight. Many airlines have very usable internet now, some even for free (jetBlue).

Re: Starlink Aviation

#360
post #359
post #353

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, I fly about 30 times per year, and in the last ten years, I've found that the in-flight wifi actually worked approximately once.

I have the same flight stats and I have only had to ask for a refund once because it straight up didn’t work for most of the flight. Many airlines have very usable internet now, some even for free (jetBlue).

It depends a lot where you fly. In my experience, flying over Europe means the internet will almost certainly be spotty at best, whereas flying over the US means that it will probably work well enough to be useful.
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