Podcast: Starlink's Effect On Inflight Connectivity

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Transcript:

Jeremy Kariuki:

Hello and welcome to the BCA Podcast by Aviation Week Network. I'm your host, Jeremy Kariuki, Associate Editor for Business Aviation. This week I'm joined by my colleagues Bill Carey and Thierry Dubois to discuss the latest shakeups regarding in-flight connectivity. Bill, Thierry, thank you so much for joining me this week.

Bill Carey:

Thanks for having me.

Thierry Dubois:

Happy to be with you. Hi, Jeremy. Hi, Bill.

Jeremy Kariuki:

There's been a lot of updates in the in-flight connectivity space regarding satellites, providers, and technology. Thierry, let's start with you. What is going on on your side of things? I know you cover a lot of commercial aviation specifically, but there's some crossover between commercial and business aviation right now and what's going on?

Thierry Dubois:

Correct, and well, maybe the most salient recent moves are by United Airlines and Air France, who are the first movers to Starlink. So they are moving away from traditional connectivity provided by high throughput satellites, large-site satellites, broadcasting or relaying information, relaying data from 36,000 kilometers to the more modern, if we could say so, more modern low earth orbit approach with a constellation of satellites, the best known being Starlink. And again, Air France has just confirmed the rumor that they are moving from their previous provider. They were using Inmarsat's GX Aviation Service for their in-flight connectivity and moving to Starlink, so I'm happy to elaborate, but maybe Bill wants to say a few words about what he knows about Starlink in business aviation?

Bill Carey:

Yeah, sure. I think because of perhaps the economies of scale that Starlink has really taken hold in the airline industry as a first mover, but it's really also become quite popular for business aviation. I think Starlink among the handful of major in-flight connectivity providers to the business aviation sector did an end around the others and came out with an electronically steered antenna that connects with their low earth orbit satellites. And it's really become quite popular with business aviation operators for a number of different types, have supplemental type certification to install the system ranging from King Air twin turboprops to Bombardier large-cabin long-range business jets. So that's really kind of in a sense, caught the rest of the industry flat-footed but some other providers are coming to market soon with their own electronically steered antennas, namely Gogo Business Aviation, as well as Satcom Direct. So that, and the Satcom Direct and Gogo Business Aviation will connect to the Eutelsat OneWeb low Earth orbit satellite network. So that finally presents some competition for Starlink but Starlink's really got perhaps a year head start on the others.

Thierry Dubois:

And what's interesting, I think in the crossover we are watching between commercial aviation and business aviation is that Air France said the step was part of its "move at market." So they are considering that it's a premium offer. Although it's a premium offer, they are pitching it as free of charge for all loyalty program members, the loyalty program is called Flying Blue. For all members, the service will be available free of charge, which is quite impressive, you think of promised data speed.

Jeremy Kariuki:

Now, Bill, I remember that Starlink had its roots in business aviation when it first launched. Do you have any perspective on how it's grown since it started with smaller charters?

Bill Carey:

Yeah, I think the launch customer really was JSX, which I'm trying to recall what they refer to themselves. They're a scheduled charter airline that operates under FAA Part 135 rules, and they use Starlink on the Embraer regional jets that were converted to, I think a 30-seat model for their service. The early reports from them were that they were extremely happy with it. It has something on the order of 200 megabits per second download speeds, and it's very supportive of a number of different applications in the cabin.

So they initially were very happy with it, and it was picked up from there and Starlink went out and in short order, less than a year, over the course of several months, pieced together a network of authorized installers of their system and who have obtained a number of different STCs, as I mentioned, on different aircraft types. I think what's kind of remarkable for me is that they're now adapting it to King Air twin turboprops in addition to these, kind of high-end business jets. So it really spans a range of different aircraft types that are used in business aviation.

Thierry Dubois:

And again, where the two industries are coming closer is that commercial aviation wants to get rid of backseat screens, which are a nightmare in terms of maintenance. In some cases it's even a no-go item before takeoff. So if they can have the passenger relying on their own devices, it's a win-win situation, of course. The passenger is happy to use their own device, plural devices. And the airline gets an easier maintenance job. So for instance, again, the service Air France is planning to offer from 2025 will be onto the passengers devices, and one passenger may even have more than one device connected simultaneously. So it's quite a strong offer that they are planning on. And again, correct me if I'm wrong, Bill, but something that starts looking like what business aircraft users have been getting in terms of flexibility.

Bill Carey:

Yeah, no, I would agree. I mean, we've heard at Business and Commercial Aviation pretty much rave reviews about the service level, however, and that's when I speak of service level, I'm talking about the application in the cabin of the aircraft. I am informed however, that Starlink's follow-up service for their existing customers leaves something to be desired. And that's one of the criticisms we've heard about Starlink.

Jeremy Kariuki:

Now, Thierry, in our previous conversation you had mentioned that satellite operator executives are expressing mixed feelings about in-flight connectivity. Could you elaborate on that?

Thierry Dubois:

Yes, that was quite striking. I had attended a conference last week in Paris called the World Space Business Week. It's organized by a consultancy called Novaspace, and they gathered basically the entire space industry, it's very impressive, including satellite operators. And in one of the panels, the panelists, I think they were satellite operators, they were asked, did you, during your flight to Paris, did you sign up for in-flight wifi? They said, yes. And were you happy with in-flight wifi connectivity? And that was when the answers were mixed. Some were happy, some were not. They couldn't necessarily name the satellite they were relying on because you know which satellite you are flying on, but you don't necessarily know which satellite you rely on during the flight. And despite the repeated promises over the last years, recent years, that high throughput satellites were going to revolutionize in-flight connectivity, well, it seems we are not there yet or not always. And that's why if Starlink keeps the promise, if the Starlink experience leads up to the promise, well, maybe quite a strong evolution in the industry.

Jeremy Kariuki:

And Bill, recently, just probably a month ago now, I read some of your coverage saying that SmartSky Networks has ceased operations. How did that happen and why? Could you tell us?

Bill Carey:

Yeah, I mean, that is another development in the industry, on the business aviation side. SmartSky Networks had built out an air-to-ground network using unlicensed spectrum and 4G, 5G technology for a air-to-ground cellular service. They had entered operation and were starting to fit that system on aircraft, business aircraft. However, they were unable to continue, and their brief explanation when they announced in August that they were ceasing operations, they were unable to continue raising the funds in order to support the ongoing service of that ground-based network. Their withdrawal from the field after more than a decade of development of that system leaves Gogo Business Aviation, which is about to, with some complications and later than expected, introduced a air-to-ground 5G service, I believe, in the late 2025 timeframe, mid-to-late 2025. That will be a service that they will be able to combine with their coming Galileo satellite service.

And they're making progress there. As I mentioned, in this effort to catch up with the early lead that Starlink has established, Gogo Business Aviation will introduce two electronically-steered antennas for their satellite service, which is called Galileo. And those antennas will connect to Eutelsat OneWeb's low-Earth orbit satellite network, which I think has something on the order of 600 satellites in orbit. And there too is another way to capitalize on the low latency of low-Earth orbit satellites for a good broadband service in the aircraft. And as well, Satcom Direct, I had an opportunity to visit their manufacturing facility for modems in Ontario, Ottawa, I'm sorry, Ottawa, Canada.

And they too are developing an electronically-steered antenna that will connect with Eutelsat OneWeb. The developer of that antenna system is Gilat Satellite Networks of Israel. And that will add to their Plane Simple line of antennas. They have two other antennas that are entering service. One has already. These are tail-mounted, mechanically-steered antennas for both Ku- and Ka-band services. So on the Ku- side, they'll connect with Intelsat FlexExec, which is a geostationary earth orbit-based satellite network. And on the Ka-band side will connect with the Viasat GX satellite network. So these companies are advancing their own systems that will present competition for Starlink. And again, with Gogo being able to offer both an air-to-ground 5G and a satellite-based broadband network will have a, really kind of a multifaceted portfolio that will be available to business aviation customers.

Thierry Dubois:

I was mentioning the experience that Starlink promises and the possibility that it could be a strong evolution. And Starlink could actually stir the market, which means that more traditional, more conventional providers may fight back. And actually they have been building quite a strong infrastructure, which still, in the building process, still in the making, in geostationary orbit, the very far orbit I was talking earlier about. The 36,000 kilometers geostationary orbit. They are placing into orbit high-throughput satellites that have novel capabilities. And the idea is that they are not hardware defined, they are software defined and therefore more flexible in orbit.

And key example is that those satellites can beam more capacity to dense traffic areas. So the operator can know in advance or spot areas in the world where demand is strong, such as transatlantic routes over the ocean between Europe and North America, typically. And those satellites can beam more capacity, can direct more capacity to those areas. So that could be interesting to follow as another way to have a nice experience for the passenger and possibly for a low cost. To be honest, it's hard to know prices, but I think that could be a good competitor, good value for money for airlines.

Bill Carey:

I think that too is an argument that Viasat makes and its competition with the low earth orbit satellite networks is that they're able, as you described, Thierry, to focus capacity in certain areas at certain times of the day. In the United States, it's very clear. And I think Europe is probably the same where the traffic is most intensive at what point in the day and how that shifts as the day progresses.

Thierry Dubois:

That's from, Bill, that's from high-orbit satellites, right?

Bill Carey:

Right. Well, so Viasat has launched the first of their three high-capacity throughput Viasat-3 satellites. There were issues with the launch of the Viasat-3-1, or I can't recall what they refer to it as, the first of the three satellites that was launched in 2023, its antenna did not fully deploy, and therefore it doesn't have the full capacity they had planned. And they do have some commitments with airlines, as well as with business aviation. But again, in terms of economies of scale, the airlines are probably a more important customer to them.

So Viasat is going to launch a new generation of high throughput capacity Ka-band satellites. They've already started that. And what Viasat also can offer the aviation community is L-band communications provided by the former Inmarsat, and of course Viasat acquired Inmarsat in the last couple of years. In L-band, it's not as high bandwidth but is qualified for safety service communications over the oceans, which some of the in-flight, the broadband Ka, Ku are not safety service certified for cockpit communications between pilots and air traffic control. So I mean, that's just kind of another offering that Viasat can make to the market that Starlink and others cannot.

Thierry Dubois:

Correct, that's a strong offer. And again, Viasat-3 and those kinds of satellites are in geostationary orbit, unless you correct me Bill.

Bill Carey:

Yeah, no, it's true. I mean, Inmarsat satellites are geostationary.

Thierry Dubois:

Also another end of the industry, Thales, which is providing many things to many aircraft manufacturers and many, many airlines, especially, well, both avionics in the cockpit and IFE and flight connectivity in the cabin, is thinking of new ways for carriers to monetize in-flight connectivity while customizing the experience. So they've started a way to enable aircraft to store content and distribute it to the passenger. So the passenger uses their own devices. See their own content, as in a Netflix or an RCS or Disney subscription they have on their own device in the aircraft.

So as far as I understand, they started offering, Thales started offering the service from data centers using cache memory in the aircraft. And as far as I understand, the service would be extended to more real-time satellite connectivity. But again, the idea is you have your own device, you have your own content, but Thales is offering carriers a way to customize the interface. So the passenger will see United Airlines or Air France or TAP Portugal interface where they will use their own device and own content. And that's the kind of service that Thales is creating. It's creating, I think it's quite new approach.

Bill Carey:

Along those lines too, on the business aviation side, that's been another limitation of Starlink that we've been told about is that Starlink does not integrate into existing aircraft cabin management system such as the Collins Venue, Honeywell Ovation and the Gulfstream Aircraft Cabin Management System. So users actually have to log off of the CMS and log into Starlink. So that's something that, one of the criticisms of Starlink that we've been told about.

Thierry Dubois:

When you are the owner of the business aircraft, if you want to use Starlink in flight, who do you have to talk to? Do you have to talk to Starlink directly or is there in between companies somewhere providing the service?

Bill Carey:

It's Starlink directly. And therein lies another issue is that I've heard they're not that responsive. For instance, companies like Satcom Direct, in addition to providing their own hardware for satellite connectivity, also interact with other companies such as Viasat, their Ka-band tail-mounted system is going to connect to, does connect to the Viasat GX satellite network and their Ku-band tail-mounted antenna connects to Intelsat. So they're both a service provider and a third-party provider of satellite connectivity to operators. Depending on which programs make most sense for your business case.

Thierry Dubois:

In any case, it seems the trend to higher capacity being direct to in-flight aircraft is here to stay. There will be a sort of snowball effect, I believe, between demand and capacity that operators, satellite operators can provide.

Bill Carey:

Yeah, no doubt about it. I mean, it's addictive. I mean, starting off from text messages to video conferencing, I mean, once the capability is available, I think it's just only going to increase in terms of demand.

Jeremy Kariuki:

Absolutely. Yeah, I think that's a good place to wrap up our conversation, unfortunately. But Bill, Thierry, thank you so much for joining me for this week's episode.

Bill Carey:

Great to be here.

Thierry Dubois:

Thank you, Jeremy. Glad to speak to you again.

Jeremy Kariuki:

Thanks for listening to the BCA Podcast by Aviation Week Network. This week's episode was produced by Jeremy Kariuki and Andrea Copley-Smith. If you enjoyed the show, don't forget to like or follow us on your podcast app of choice. If you'd like to support us, please leave a rating wherever you listen. Thanks again, and we'll see you next time.