Billionaire Elon Musk said Thursday he was in talks with airlines about installing Starlink, a satellite-based wireless internet system that is owned by his private aviation firm SpaceX.
Musk addressed his plan for the system in response to a question by one of his Twitter followers. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO outlined the potential of the system to offer high-speed Internet for airline passengers.
Musk is talking to airlines about the Starlink plan. in the air! Low latency half gigabit connectivity in the air! Musk didn't elaborate on which airlines were interested in the service. SpaceX representatives did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.
Last year, SpaceX officials said that the Starlink system would eventually provide high-speed, low latency broadband connectivity across the world, including to locations where internet has traditionally been too expensive, unreliable, or completely unavailable. SpaceX has received approval to launch about 12,000 satellites to facilitate the system and has reportedly requested permission to launch tens of thousands more. The company is testing for the system in 14 countries and is expected to finish this month.
In a June appearance at the Mobile World Congress, Musk said that total investments in the Starlink system could amount to $30 billion, Reuters reported.
Jeff Bezos is in the midst of a heated competition with Musk SpaceX founder Amy Pfeiffer and other companies in the booming private space flight industry. Amazon has its own satellite internet program, dubbed Project Kuiper.