Starlink’s Wi-Fi No.

Last Thursday, one of the first United Airlines aircraft was boarded Equipped with Satlet Starlink. As expected, Wi-Fi was very fast and left me wondering whether this would build the end of Wi-Fi on the plane, expensive contact fees, or even the strange idea that we can avoid working completely while wandering at a height of 30,000 feet in the air.

The test plane was a Repraer E-175, a narrow body plane for regional flights that could suit 88 passengers. The journey was short, just 90 minutes away, taking off and landing from the same gate at Ohair Airport in Chicago. However, the mood was festive, as many senior executives at United Mazar wore the first -class snacks and plastic cups.

It was customary for airlines to tell passengers of switching their phones to placing the plane before taking off “for safety reasons.” Now, United encourages its customers to browse, stream and play their heart content thanks to a new partnership with SPACEX.

Last year, United has become the first three major local airlines to announce Her powered Wi-Fi added plan to her fleet, as it is expected to start the first commercial flights at the end of 2025. This plan was recently accelerated, and United now says her first trips with Starlink will start officially on May 15, starting with the short jump between Chicago. It was a round and forth journey in Chicago just a test trip, and an opportunity for United to show how quickly the new Wi-Fi provider is.

United collected an interesting group of passengers for the test trip. In addition to me and two other journalists, I saw some of the online influencers, Twitch Stremer, and a person from Blizzard video game publisher.

The service works on a gate to a gate, unlike the work only over 10,000 feet, a restriction that some other systems work. Once I sat, instructions were instructed to connect to the Wi-Fi network using the United Mobile app. But first, you needed to subscribe to the MilegePlus loyalty program, in order to reach.

To log in, you need to agree to some rules, such as the lack of audio and video calls, and headphones for sound, and there is no view content that others may find misfortune. Once you agree on these conditions, you can log in to your imageplus account to reach Wi-Fi. Fortunately, MilegePlus is free to register, United says it does not have immediate plans to charge additional Wi-Fi.

Indeed, this distinguishes the airline. Most of the Wi-Fi transport companies, with prices of $ 8 for a local trip to $ 600 for annual communication plans. Before Starlink, the United Wi-Fi network was operated by a variety of suppliers, with regional aircraft that use Intelsat (previously Gogo) and the most wide aircraft of the body using Wi-Fi Panasonic. Now, the company says it is planning to install the Starlink modem on all 1026 aircraft in its fleet, starting with its cabin -cabinet planes before moving to the main plane.

“We are preparing the Wi-Fi network like your living room to the sky-whether you are flowing, games, shopping or work,” says David Kinsellan, Senior Customer Office at United.

Once I managed to call, I started checking Wi-Fi speeds. Using SpeedtestReview the speed several times throughout the trip: at the gate, during the taxi, during take -off, upward, at the height of the lamp, landing, and during the landing. I found that the download speeds are very impressive, with an average of 128MB (MBPS), while the download speeds were slightly slower at a rate of 23.9 Mbps. The image quality was completely clear, the cumin was low, and everything appears to be completely smoothly. (Now now, I review the Wi-Fi speed in my house, and the YEP, the correct Kinzelman quotation rings.)

I browsed the web, and I was passed by Instagram and Tiktok, I watched a few minutes of the latest episode of Disney Plus’ AndorLive football game has been broadcast, entered the CNN coverage for the new Pope, and even a video call with edge VJARAN PAVIC Supervision Product. But if the possibility of hundreds of people who make video calls over one trip scares you, do not worry-United said that his passengers will be soaked from video conferences or to make anything without headphones on their energy-powered commercial trips.

It was the only time she had some hiccups when she tried to download some videos to Google. What will usually take less than one minute on the Earth’s Wi-Fi network that takes approximately seven minutes when it is connected to Starlink. This is not very surprising, given this Starlink itself is less eager to advertise Download speeds compared to the download rate.

The plane started to get it before I was able to test online play Mario Cart 8 Deluxe On the nintendo key. But given the speeds I have seen, I expect the chaos and ends that challenge the attractiveness are quite enjoyable as if I were playing in the living room.

United says that you can connect the largest possible number of devices you want without a speed deterioration. I didn’t bring many tools Wall Street JournalJoanna Stern did last yearBut three devices look like the sweet spot for most people.

Starlink’s Wi-Fi works better than most other service providers due to the widening number of satellites that you enjoy in the low-Earth orbit, which is currently more than 7000. While this definitely raises concerns about Space debris and excessive excitementThe company is also allowed to provide Wi-Fi with a much lower transition time thanks to the shorter distance in which the signal must travel compared to satellites in the orbit.

UNITED is not the first airline to integrate Starlink; This distinction goes to Hawaii and JSX airlines. But as the largest airline in North America, the choice of Internet satellite service from Elon Musk is definitely a harbinger of the upcoming things. There is no word yet when the airline plans to bring technology to its international flights, or how it will turn into the Star Alliance, but the CEO of United MilegePlus said Richard Nun said that there will be more to announce in the near future.

But if all of this looks a little bit of excitement by United-Fi-Fi, and for free? – Don’t worry, because the airline is already considering how this connection is liquefied.

“What allows us to do the Starlink connection to do it in an actual time, due to the arrival time and the low -oriented satellite technology … means that we can make some advertising decisions in an actual time, less than 100 milliliters of service in an excessive personality world,” says Nun.

But I am less worried about the UNITED ME bombing with personal ads because I am on how to open Wi-Fi in Starlink on board. It was customary to enjoy a few hours of continuous recession sounds and email notifications during the air. This was my time to watch the terrible films that I will never pay to watch in the theater or even break a book for a few hours.

But as soon as the Wi-Fi speeds become earthly as the wound to a height of 30,000 feet in the air is the base, we will not be able to rely on these ancient excuses anymore. Good luck in an attempt The raw dog on that next trip.