SpaceX also plans to sell it to Hawaiian Airlines and other commercial airlines next year.
SpaceX, owned by Elon Musk, is expanding its satellite internet unit’s move into in-flight WiFi services with the launch of Starlink Aviation on Wednesday. Starlink Aviation offers customers $150,000 (₱9 Million) airplane antenna in a market where competition for connectivity is growing.
Starlink is SpaceX’s growing network of thousands of internet satellites. The company said on its website that customers who want broadband internet on private jets would have to pay between $12,500 (₱735,000) and $25,000 (₱1 Million) monthly for the service, plus a one-time hardware cost of $150,000 (₱9 Million).
Starlink Aviation said on its website that it will start sending out terminals in the middle of 2023. A $5,000 (₱295,000) deposit is needed to make a reservation. It also said that each terminal could send as much as 350 Mbps. Which is fast enough for video calls and online games.
Companies like SpaceX’s Starlink and Britain’s OneWeb, are racing. To sign up airlines and private jet services in a market dominated by Inmarsat and its rival ViaSat. Which are planning to merge.
OneWeb and Panasonic Avionics, a big name in in-flight broadband that serves about 70 airlines. Agreed to market and sell OneWeb’s broadband service to airlines by the middle of 2023.
Last week, Britain’s competition regulator referred to Viasat’s planned takeover of rival Inmarsat for a more in-depth look because of worries that the merger could make it harder for new companies to enter the aviation connectivity market and raise prices for WiFi on airplanes.
SpaceX plans to connect Hawaiian Airlines planes to the internet through Starlink next year. The company offers the service to people in boats and RVs, and tens of thousands of people already pay $110 (₱6,000) monthly for a terminal that costs $599 (35,000).
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