[usui]

Recently I flew on a long-distance (so at least a dozen hours of flight time) low-budget airline that had 60 Mbps download/12 Mbps upload and it specifically called out SpaceX Starlink for being able to provide this for free. A video call went smoothly. There was connectivity from takeoff to landing with no interruption in between. This was the best airline experience I've had yet.

[consumer451]

OK, so for this, Starlink is AMAZING! In-flight Starlink is undeniable.

The first time I experienced it, I could not believe what was happening. I messaged my nerd friends with screenshots of https://speed.cloudflare.com/

Also, their required zero-friction UX is the shiznit.

Then, I fell asleep as I finally had theoretical time off.

[deaton]

I flew Delta about 6 months ago and they had something similar, also for free, but they use Viasat. I think most of the big airlines were moving this way anyway to be honest, Starlink just has a good opportunity for advertising.

[postingawayonhn]

Starlink speed and bandwidth is way ahead of any of the existing satellite internet providers.

[matwood]

Gate to gate (if the plane door is closed) wifi has been a thing for most (all?) of the US airlines for awhile. Delta's wifi is ok, but I routinely have issues. It could be a combination of older technology on the plane and worse satellite network, but it's supposedly nowhere near as good as plane with Starlink.

I also use Starlink at my house in Italy. I'm in a decent sized town, but there is no fiber available. It has worked great, and more importantly took about 10 minutes to setup.

[usui]

I believe Viasat internet satellites are placed in geostationary orbit, whereas SpaceX Starlink is not, so the service Viasat provides is already blown out.

[laughing_man]

Long latency makes Viasat good for some things and not so good for others.

[sixtyj]

I’ve read so many posts from both CEOs and programmers about their higher in-flight productivity thanks to be offline.

[brianwawok]

It used to be one of the best parts of a cruise, a week without internet! But it’s pretty decent these days

[basisword]

And this is exactly why we don't need internet on planes.

[ceejayoz]

Yeah, planes are noisy enough without making them into a call center cubicle farm.

[jen20]

Voice and video calls are both outlawed in the US by the DOT.

[inemesitaffia]

And the FAA, FCC and as part of the Labour agreement with the Flight staff