Passengers on Qatar Airways Boeing 777 that took off earlier this week on Tuesday became the first set of travellers to experience Elon Musk’s Starlink free high-speed internet service in flight.
Recently, Elon Musk, SpaceX owner partnered with Qatar Airways, a prominent Middle Eastern airline to provide the latter with one of the fastest internet connections on flights.
The first aircraft equipped with Starlink wifi – Boeing 777 took off from Doha to London on Tuesday, October 22.
Video Calling Using High-Speed Starlink Internet
Badr Al Meer, CEO of Qatar Airways video called the Starlink founder, Musk when he was on the first Starlink internet-equipped flight flying at 35,000 feet from Doha to London.
Musk took the call from his home and said, “We’re literally just talking over Starlink right now - that’s super cool.”
“It’s Starlink across the laser links of the satellites all the way to your aircraft.”
Introducing the Starlink wifi Qatar Airways aircraft could be a move to challenge competitor airlines who offer paid, slow wifi services or restricted wifi access often reserved for particular passengers based on their status.
This move could position Qatar Airways as a leader in providing an enhanced in-flight experience.
“It’s going to get better. We launched new satellites and keep improving the software. Over time I think you’ll find it just gets better and better,” Musk said on the call with Meer.
'Reliable High-Speed Internet'
Musk’s other subsidiary SpaceX engineered Starlink is hailed as a “reliable high-speed internet” service designed for both homes and businesses.
Starlink is also the world's first and largest satellite constellation using a low Earth orbit to deliver broadband internet capable of supporting streaming, online gaming, video calls and more.
Starlink technology will be integrated into Qatar Airways 12 Boeing 777-300s by the end of this year.
However, this is just the beginning, the airline aims to have the entire Boeing 777 and Airbus A350 fleet equipped with Starlink technology by 2025.
Musk spoke to Saad bin Ali Al-Kharji, the Chairman of Qatar Tourism, who was sitting next to Badr Al Meer on the plane and said:
“Think of this as the minimum. It only gets better from here”
