Last Thursday, I boarded one of the first United Airlines planes to be equipped with the star link satellite Wi -Fi. As expected, Wi -Fi was very fast and I was wondering if it would have the idea of flying Wi -Fi, expensive contact fees, or even the imagination that we could avoid work by traveling in the air completely 30,000 feet.
The test aircraft was an Umber of E -175, a narrow body aircraft for regional flights that could fit up to 88 passengers. The flight was short, just about 90 minutes, descending from the same gate at Chicago’s O -Har airport. Nevertheless, the mood was festival, several top officials of the United States donated passengers to serve first -class breakfast boxes and champagne plastic cups.
It used to be that airlines tell passengers to turn your phone into aircraft mode before removing “safety reasons”. Now, United is encouraging its users to browse, stream and play their heart content thanks to a new partnership with SpaceX’s star link.
Last year, United became the first person at the Big Three Domestic Airlines to announce their plan to include a star link -driven Wi -Fi, whose first commercial flights hope to begin at the end of 2025. The project was recently intensified, and now United says its first flights with a short hop between Chicago and Detroit will begin officially. The round trip flight in Chicago was just one test flight, and United had the opportunity to provide an opportunity for United its new Wi -Fi provider.
The round trip flight in Chicago was just one test flight, and United had the opportunity to provide an opportunity for United its new Wi -Fi provider.
United gathered an exciting group of passengers for a test flight. In addition to me and two other journalists, I saw some online influence, a Twitter Streamer, and video game publisher snowstorm.
This service works the Gate -to -Gate, on the contrary, unlike working more than 10,000 feet, which works under other systems. As I sat down, I was instructed to contact Wi -Fi using the United Nations mobile app. But first, I needed to sign up for the airline’s loyalty program, Mileage Plus to access.
Login You, you need to agree with some principles, such as no sound and video calls, headphones for audio, and no content to watch that makes others find unpleasant. Once you agree with these terms, you can sign in to your Mileage Plus account to access Wi -Fi. Fortunately, Mileage Plus is free to sign up, and United says its star link is not an immediate plan to get additional compensation for Wi -Fi.
Already, it separates the airline. Most carriers are compensated for Wi -Fi, which rates $ 8 to $ 600 for domestic flight for annual contact projects. Prior to the Star Link, United’s Wi -Fi was reinforced by several suppliers, in which regional jet aircraft used a very broad physical jet using Intelligence (formerly Gogo) and Panasonic Wi -Fi. Now, the company says it plans to put a starlink modem on all 1,026 aircraft in its fleet, which begins with two cabin regional jets before the mainline plane.
“We’re taking Wi -Fi to the heavens like your residential room,” says David Kanzelman, the United Customer Officer of the United States.
As soon as I managed to contact, I started checking the speed of Wi -Fi. Using the SpeedistI tested more than once in the entire flight: at the gate, when taxing, taking off during the take -off, climbing, descending, and landing. I found the download speed very impressive, with an average average of 128 megabytes per second (MBPS), while the uploaded speed was a bit slow at an average of 23.9 Mbps. The quality of the picture was clearly clear, the delay was low, and it seems that everything works easily. (And now, I have the speed of my home Wi -Fi, and yes, the reference to Kanzelman is correct.)
| Perspective | Average Download (MBPS) | Average Upload (MBPS) | Litanisi (MS) |
| Airport Public WiFi | 305 | 249 | 5 |
| Airplane, on the gate | 117 | 20.3 | 22 |
| Airplane, taxi | 231.5 | 3.01 | 17 |
| Airplane, take off | 234.8 | 14.9 | 19 |
| Plane, climbed | 192.1 | 18.9 | 23 |
| Aircraft, naval height | 196 | 27.3 | 19 |
| Plane, landing | 72.6 | 26.1 | 90 |
I surf me on the web, Scrollled Instagram and Taktok saw a few minutes of the latest incident of Disney Plus’ AnderMoved a straight football game, checked on CNN’s new pope coverage, and even had a video call with it Stuffy Producer Vajran Puke supervision. But if hundreds of people in the same flight are likely to make an overlaping video call, don’t worry-United said they will discourage their passengers to conference or do something without a headphone on their star link-powered commercial flights.
I found the download speed very impressive, which has an average of 128 mbps
When I tried to upload some video clips to my Google Drive, some hiccups went into some time. When the star link is connected to the signal of the link, it usually takes about seven minutes on the WiFi Wi -Fi just a minute. This is not surprising, because of this Star Link itself is less anxious about advertising It has uploaded speed compared to its download rate.
The aircraft began its descent before I could test the online game before I could check the online game Mario Cart 8 Delux On the Nintendo switch. But looking at the pace I was watching, I would expect that it would be as pleasant to spoil the tracks of chaos and gravity as I was playing in my room.
United says you can connect more tools as much as you want, there is no degradation at the speed. I didn’t bring so gadgets as much as Wall Street JournalLast year Joann Sturn had doneBut the three devices look like a sweet place for most people.
The star link Wi -Fi works better than most other providers as it has a gross extension of the number of satellites in the lower ground, which is currently more than 7,000. Although it certainly raises concerns about space debris and maximum thunderstorms, it also offers a Wi -Fi thanks to a very short distance to travel signals than satellites in geostory orbit.
The United Star Link is not the first airline. This distinction goes to the airlines and JSX. But as North America’s largest career, the choice of Elon Musk’s satellite internet service is certainly a cubier of things to come. So far there is no word that the airline plans to bring this technology to its international flights, or how it will be in the Star Alliance, but Richard Noon, CEO of United Mileage Plus Plus, said there would be much more to announce it in the near future.
But if all this was getting a bit more pious on the United States part-speed speed of Wi-Fi, and free? – Don’t worry, because the airline is already wondering how it will monitor all this contact.
Nun says, “Star Link contacts allow us to work in real time, because due to delays and low earth orbit satellite technology … this means that we can make a real time, less than 100 ml advertising decisions that can serve in a hypertensive world.”
But I am less worried about blowing up the United States with personal advertising because I am about how WiFi can open another place for remote work in Star Link flight. It used to be that I could enjoy a few pleasant hours free from permanent silic pings and email reports while living in the air. It was my time to watch the terrible movies that I would never pay to see in the theater or even break a book for a few hours.
But once the Pradesh Wi -Fi speeds, it becomes normal for a walk of 30,000 feet in the air, we will not be able to rely on these old excuses. Trying good luck Ra Dog he’s next flight.
