Didn’t even realize that they sold in Europe – would be cool to have in the aircraft.
That price for that speed is actually not bad at all, compared to what we pay for fibre here.
For that speed, it’s within the price range of [crap ISP] … [good ISP].
Not sure it is viable for airborne data for GA – see earlier posts.
eurogaguest1980 wrote:
would be cool to have in the aircraft
Except the antenna is big as a wing 
Peter wrote:
That price for that speed is actually not bad at all, compared to what we pay for fibre here.
I have had everything via 4G, 5G since last year, for a while now. 200 up/down. This Starlink is actually a bit cheaper, by approximately €15 per month. The 5G came with free installation and free hardware though, and 500 up/down is also available. But the size of that starlink antenna…
LeSving wrote:
But the size of that starlink antenna…
You just have to design the aircraft around the antenna!
Airborne_Again wrote:
You just have to design the aircraft around the antenna!
Exactly just add some engine(s) and movable surfaces to antenna and you have working solution.
Do they have an antenna suitable for GA mounting?
It could be a great fit for GA. Perhaps the satellite alignment is not intended for airborne receivers anyway.
However, the receiver appliance consumes 100+W which can add up in a light aircraft.
As for fibre optics / mobile comparison, the comparison is the same as landlines vs cell phones. Some people might have said that better data rates on cell phones would kill landlines, but in reality nothing beats a good old fiber cable (less traffic congestion, less power…). For space, it’s even worse as it will always be cheaper to maintain antennas down here than up there, for so many reasons.
Personally, given SpaceX is a huge investor/taxpayer money sink right now (Falcon was a big R&D waste given the false promise of total reusability, and Starship would have to work really hard to prevent bankrupcy), I would not give huge hopes about the future of Starlink. There are already numerous reports about congestion, overall below average satisfaction, and I suspect all the appealing deals offered right now are just a way of pumping numbers in order to attract more investor money to burn.
maxbc wrote:
However, the receiver appliance consumes 100+W which can add up in a light aircraft.
possibly while deicing, currently my UPS shows 40w load for Starlink + rasperry.
I have been using Starlink a bit more than a year and it has been perfect. No possibility of fibre (unless I want to pay for 2km trench+fibre myself), the 4G speed varied between 5 and 15Mbit .. Starlink gives aboud 150 and this hasn’t changed during last year.
Here using Starlink since Nov 2021. measured the speed on the ethernet hard wire yesterday, it was well over 250 MB,
it is one of providers on our multiport WAN router, but performing excellent. (the other two are wired ADSL, wireless 4G)
The possible GA application is still cost prohibitive the size of antenna is not an issue any more.
Peter wrote:
That price for that speed is actually not bad at all, compared to what we pay for fibre here.
That price is only for fixed installations on buildings.
For marine, it starts at £247/month (just under £3000 per year) with a £2240 hardware cost. For aircraft I have to imagine it will be more still.
