SpaceX’s Starlink internet services are now expanding to provide services in private jets
The range of SpaceX’s Starlink internet services has been expanded to include the service provided aboard private aircraft. When the organization first set out to provide these services, one of its primary objectives was to make internet access available even in more rural areas. Now, the Starlink internet is prepared to be rolled out on jets as well. It is planned to send thousands of internet satellites into space so that these services can be made available to an increasing number of people all over the world.
Customers seeking broadband on private aircraft can expect to pay between $12,500 and $25,000 per month when working with this company as their provider. Alternatively, an additional threshold of a one-time hardware cost of 150,000 dollars might also be employed. Beginning around the middle of the year 2023, Starlink Aviation will start supplying terminals. A deposit of $5,000 is required to secure the reservations. Each terminal can provide speeds of up to 350 Mbps, which is fast enough for video chatting and gaming online.
In a market that is dominated by companies such as Inmarsat and its competitor ViaSat, which are planning to merge, businesses that are in the process of building low-Earth orbiting satellite networks that beam broadband internets, such as SpaceX’s Starlink and Britain-backed satellite operator OneWeb, are competing with one another to court airlines and private jet services. OneWeb announced on Tuesday that it has reached an agreement with the in-flight broadband giant Panasonic Avionics to promote and sell OneWeb’s broadband service to airlines by the middle of 2023. Panasonic Avionics now provides service to approximately 70 different airlines.
Viasat’s proposed acquisition of its competitor, Inmarsat, has been referred for a more in-depth study due to worries that the combination will stifle fresh competition in the aviation connection industry and raise prices for onboard Wi-Fi services provided by airlines. In 2019, SpaceX intends to make its Starlink internet connectivity service available to Hawaiian Airlines flights. The corporation provides the service to clients in the maritime industry as well as RVs, and it now has tens of thousands of private subscribers who pay $110 per month for a terminal that costs $599.
SpaceX has also secured early arrangements with commercial air carriers, including agreements to provide Wi-Fi on planes with Hawaiian Airlines and semi-private charter service JSX. SpaceX has been allowed to do a limited number of tests in flight up to this point because the company thinks that the aviation Wi-Fi industry is “ready for an upgrade.”
This most recent product is a direct threat to Gogo, the market leader in the provision of in-flight connectivity. However, a William Blair analyst named Louie DiPalma stated on Wednesday in a note to investors that the Starlink product “appears to be too big and too expensive to challenge” Gogo’s position in the small-to-midsize business jet market. He added that “this will likely come as a welcome relief to Gogo investors.”
Although it is anticipated that Starlink’s “premium pricing” will have “a relatively limited impact on Gogo in the near-term,” analysts from Morgan Stanley wrote in a note that SpaceX’s new service “highlights growing competitive intensity in a market that Gogo has historically dominated with >80% market share.”