Elon Musk attacks Viasat and Intelsat - Starlink satellite Internet provided speeds of over 100 Mbps for the passengers of the plane

SpaceX tested the Starlink satellite Internet in a passenger plane. The demonstration flight was carried out in California. It was attended by journalists of famous American publications, including Bloomberg.

Here's What We Know

For the tests they used the plane of the Californian JSX Aviation Company. It flew about 500 km from Burbank to San Jose. There were about a dozen people on board, and additional equipment simulated the load on the system as from 30 passengers.

In the end, the Starlink satellite Internet was able to provide speeds of over 100 Mbps for the entire flight. Alex Wilcox, head of JSX Airlines, also tested the Internet performance and was very pleased. SpaceX's goal is to provide access to Netflix and YouTube at an altitude of 9 km.

Elon Musk's company is trying to take a piece of the pie from Intelsat and Viasat. By comparison, Viasat has data speeds of 2.2 Mbps on American Airlines planes with 100 passengers on board. Intelsat President Jeff Sare says Starlink is a strong competitor in the satellite Internet space.

But SpaceX has a disadvantage, which is the low bandwidth of the satellites. They can handle connectivity for 30 passengers on a regional plane, but it's not certain if they can do the same for hundreds of passengers in crowded skies or at airports in major cities. However, SpaceX is optimistic. Company representatives do not deny the problems, but argue that the pessimistic forecasts do not take into account the rapid development of the Starlink network.

Source: Bloomberg