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Starlink Aviation

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Re: Starlink Aviation

#382

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The primary issue is * there isn’t any sort of provider like Openreach where all the ISPs share some portion of the network (in Openreach’s case, the last-mile network) so every ISP has to build every last inch to the home themselves * generally speaking, ISPs have to get permits from localities, which are often cash-strapped and thus looking to scrape as much money as they can from an unsympathetic sector

I am in an apartment building in a large city where OpenReach will only supply 3mb fibre despite how many times we ask or complain. There are other 2 or 3 year newer apartment buildings 10 meters away in 3 directions which have fiber to the premises rather then awkwardly run lengths of the cheapest aluminium cable that they could find. I was considering using starlink but found prepaid MVNO 5G cheaper (though it is u…

You mean an actual strand of glass with three megabits of capacity? Where can they buy CPE hardware to support that combination?

Re: Starlink Aviation

#383

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…

Finding b2b markets for Starlink is very important. Starlink has about 500K subscribers today. Their TAM inherently shrinks as terrestrial fixed wireless access (FWA) expands. That expansion will accelerate with 5G FWA driving interoperability, but FWA subscribers already vastly outnumber Starlink subscribers. Starlink needs tens of millions of b2c subscribers, or it needs to find high value specialized or b2b markets that can't be served by FWA.

Re: Starlink Aviation

#385
This is a game changer. It works really, really well - better than I ever expected to see internet on a plane work. The price tag seems ridiculous, but will probably make sense for a lot of the operators of the planes on their initial STC.

Re: Starlink Aviation

#386

I'm curious how StarLink is handling the mod and certification aspects of this. It's not quite as easy as just slamming an antenna on the roof of an airplane.

It’s been solved by companies like Gogo and Vianet using Ku, Ka and L band antennas on planes. StarLink will package their antenna in a line replaceable unit (LRU).

I'm aware it's been solved, my company did almost all of the engineering work in the US for in-flight WiFi mods.

I'm sure Elon has a plan, but there's a difference between modding a gulf stream and devising an STC for production installation on 100+ aircraft.

Re: Starlink Aviation

#387
post #385

This is a game changer. It works really, really well - better than I ever expected to see internet on a plane work. The price tag seems ridiculous, but will probably make sense for a lot of the operators of the planes on their initial STC.

I think the big customers are militaries of nation states. Satellite communications for military drones is a huge enabling technology.

Re: Starlink Aviation

#388

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see this take a lot, and I don't really understand it. I'm sure you know that you always have the option to just not use the in-flight wifi. Is it that the availability of the wifi will tempt you to use it, therefore removing the feeling of disconnect?

For me it's more the _expectation_ that you can be reached that is the difference. Even if others might not really expect this from you, the possibility being there changes the situation.

I see, that makes sense. In that case, it becomes more of a discussion of boundaries and proper work-life expectations.

Re: Starlink Aviation

#389
post #363
post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A friend lives in a city with a lot of startups, a lot of technology companies and a research university that's been on the internet since before the DNS. He's on the waiting list for Starlink because the fastest residential connection he can get is 3Mbps. There's much fiber there, but also many streets where no fiber is available. AFAICT that kind of spottiness is the most common case and few cities have uniformly g…

Why not just use a 100Mbs (4G) unlimited mobile service?

Is latency competitive? 4g is quite laggy in terms of RTT. Not sure what sea-level starlink is like.

Re: Starlink Aviation

#390

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.

That is still your choice. On transatlantic flights a WIFI connection would be a godsend.
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