Starlink vs. Viasat Thread Drift
 

I’m late to this thread, but just want to chime in on this topic specifically and say we’re already in the “industry lagging tech” phase, and at a critical level. Compared to
our counterparts at United, we are being lapped.

We really missed the boat on Starlink. SpaceX launched their 10,000th satellite this year. Meanwhile Via-sat's single replacement satellite over the pacific still isn't up and running. Imagine paying $$$$ for D1 and having no wifi for 10 hours. Going on several years now.

This will become the Microsoft Surface 2.0 — on a larger, customer-facing scale.

Management’s hubris will prevent them from conceding that United had a better idea than them for years to come. By the time their successors take over and reevaluate our Wi-Fi provider, the damage will have already been done.

i have to think its cost driven. Viasat is installed on almost all our aircraft, and starlink isnt cheap. Viasat will work if its fast enough, or our competitors dont opt for thr $$$$ plan.

If Delta’s goal is to offer the most premium product in the industry, then we need to offer the most premium WiFi in the industry. Few things are as important to customers as quality WiFi, particularly HVACs.

Currently, Viasat is decidedly second-tier. Whether it can ever come close to Starlink remains to be seen.

agree. filler.

Remember the big conversation we had years ago about this in here? It was around the time of peak [mod edit]. A lot of people thought it was risky doing business with Elon. It wasn’t a good argument at the time and hasn’t aged well. Elon wasn’t going to have power personally to turn off our WiFi. We are doing business with a company. It would be like being scared of buying a ticket on Delta because you are concerned Es is going to decide to not let you on the plane. But here we are, we will never catch up and will always operate an inferior product. The fuel savings from the smaller antenna pays for itself in days. The Viasat bulge is absurd.

Delta's goal to be the most premium stems only for what they believe people will pay a premium for, and that's reliability. Yes, we are failing at that.. Are there some niche businessmen that want 300mbs to their personal device? I assume, sure. But we haven't had the most expensive or best anything for at least the last two decades. We still have 717s, buy used airplanes like a redneck lottery winner and have ALWAYS been subpar in tech. Is our lack of Wi-Fi in the Pacific a problem? Yeah, I'll concede. But it's also one of the lowest yield markets.

Even the Pacific is scheduled to have coverage after the launch of the Viasat-3 launch in 2Q26.

If it doesn’t debt damaged.

I think that can be said for just about anything.

1: Starlink is incredible.

2: Real time voice/video chat is currently barred from use on US carriers. Not for technical reasons. But for public tolerance of “blah blah” in an enclosed space in a metal tube.

Delta is on the right side of this. Relatively high speed internet (usually) for work, but no video or voice chat.

Passengers who truly need 100% real time comms for business fly corporate jets, not commercial.

I suspect Delta bean counters figured this out years ago.

i think you make a good point. Starlink sounds like it’s the gold standard. But if viasat is even half as good or more and the coverage improves across our entire network then most pax likely wont notice enough for wifi being the deciding factor of who they book with.

It's physically impossible for viasat (GEO orbit, 22k mile altitude) to be even in the ballpark of Starlink performance (Low Earth orbit with terabyte laser interlinks, 1k mile altitude). Physics, speed of light and all that.

Sorry viasat apologists/stockholders, you made a bad call on this one. Let it go. Hopefully Delta does sooner rather than later.

When we picked Viasat, it was the better choice. Anybody with half a brain doesn't trust anything Elon Musk says, but it just so happened that Starlink turned out to be better. That doesn't mean it was the wrong decision at the time.

Average starlink (low earth orbit) latency is ~30 milliseconds.

Average viasat (geosynchronous orbit) latency is ~300 milliseconds.

Both values are trivial to 90% of end users unless they're trying to play an online competitive shooter during a Pacific crossing.

Unless you bought in early 2025...amirite!?! :D

This. As long as there is relatively fast Wi-Fi globally, it doesn't matter. No one is buying a ticket on an airline based on Wi-Fi latency.

Our VRU system is down again, got that going again for us.

$13 average here-6k shares. she’s a beast. Institutional investors have their data.

Believe me, Im no fan of viasat and the constant need to reset it on seemingly every flight and apologize to pax when it doesn't even work. All Im saying, as others have is if Starlink gets an A+ and viasat improves to a B-, it's likely not going to be a deciding factor for the majority of pax. Just like some pax will pick a carrier because they fly a 787 on a particular route, the vast majority couldn't tell the difference between a Dreamliner and a 767. The other thing to consider is that we are already all in on viasat, are we not? Do you expect mgt to rip them all out, terminate whatever contract we have with them and then sign on with Starlink?

If Southwest c2026, for crying out loud, can afford/manage to dump ViaSat and get Starlink on 40% of it's fleet in the next 12 months, I would think it shouldn't be too heavy a lift for Delta. We've been doing the geosynchronous thing from the start (since 2010)...and have endured all the jokes and complaints from customers that go with it. It's been through two hardware upgrades, and yet it just never has truly been able to keep up with the bandwidth demand. I disagree that 'good enough' WiFi will not be a discriminator going forward. We increasingly live in a world where fast, reliable WiFi is right up there with hot & cold running water in the expectations of a customer, whether it's at a Starbucks, a hotel, or on an airliner. Deprive them of it at your peril...

Full disclosure, Im not aware of the process and costs associated with changing it up at this point or that SWA was doing it. As for "good enough" again Im not a tech guy so Im not too well versed on how many satellites and when they get launched, etc. What I would say is if viasat winds up being "good" and starlink is "great" we are probably fine for the vast majority of pax. If viasat is still objectively "bad" vs starlink being "great" then, yes we will have a problem. Ive had some flights nonreving and DH where the wifi worked the entire flight at reasonable speeds and I was able to stream Netflix and YouTube without a problem.

You’re giving management far too much credit.

Voice / video chat is technically possible right now over ViaSat, using a VPN to get around the filters. The quality of the video stream will depend on how much bandwidth other passengers are using.

Contracting an inferior service simply to prevent passengers from engaging in one particular prohibited activity is comically dumb (and was not their strategy whatsoever).

Bandwidth requirements of everyday applications continue to rise at a rapid pace. The most importance difference between ViaSat and Starlink is total bandwidth available to the aircraft. Starlink offers more than double ViaSat’s highest projections, which makes it far more future proof.

Eventually, Delta management will need to tuck their tail between their legs and adopt Starlink, as is the inevitable result of most of their IT-related decisions.

Someone said the reason why Delta hasnt chosen Starlink is because of the advertising. Delta wants to have control, but Starlink said no. No idea if true.

You know who probably cares the most? The "HVCs" we are all supposed to fawn over. Regardless, people notice these things even if they're just marketing bullet points, which this time is not actually the case. Our wifi is cantankerous at best and usually requires a lot of systems settings interactions just to get connected. Starlink is a superior product. I happen to also be a customer and it is a well run company with a product that I am constantly impressed with. Hell, they sent me an email last month telling me they were doubling my service and not raising the price ( I have a Roam package). it even works in my airplane now, which is an amazing enhancement. I digress....

To me this is among the frustrations I feel every time I go to a lav and find the toilet seat barely attached and the paper towed dispenser speed taped together, which happens with alarming regularity. We are hugely profitable, yes, but I feel like it comes partly from not re-investing enough money in the product (which includes internal systems, too). We can't just tell everyone we're better than the rest and expect them to keep believing (and paying for) it.

All of this!!! Someone is definitely calculating the risk of us operating this way. Anecdotally I do still hear a lot of positive feedback about our overall product relative to the competition. But even with that, I think most people realize the “premium” title is overused and largely inaccurate. We just suck less often than the others. As you said, we are wildly profitable now but this strategy has a shelf life. I sure hope there is a plan for when it expires.

There isn’t fast global coverage. That is the issue.

Thats because… it’s rolling out this year? Going from one semi-damaged ViaSat satellite covering the America’s to three ViaSat satellites covering the globe- improving bandwidth, speed, and latency through ViaSat’s contracted purchase capacity of Telesat’s “Lightspeed” LEO system (LEO’s in 27’). It will work in tandem with ViaSat’s GEO system offering a hybrid GEO+LEO constellation.

It’ll have all the benefits of a LEO system like Starlink, and the benefits of GEO which are capable of broader coverage and higher throughput: ability to handle larger pools of connected passengers without sacrificing download speed; which is Starlink’s main weakness now- suffers compared to GEO once multiple users are logged on (this includes all ground based users and such). Point is, it’ll be the same or better when it’s all said and done. Guarantee it was better to be first to market with free WiFi in 2019 which adds to the reason why Delta continue to leads corporate/business travel today. United may have free WiFi at Delta’s scale going into 2028. They have no global coverage or domestic as only most of their RJ fleet is equipped, no mainline.

JetBlue had free WiFi long before Delta did.

https://amplyfi.com/wp-content/uploa...-16-135141.png
I wonder if the threat of the “Kessler Syndrome”, an initial starlink collision, turning into a chain reaction of LEO space debris could ever be problematic amongst the Starlink, Amazon Kupier?, and Chinese clones mega constellations. The Viasats do have the benefit of altitude.
Satellite collisions

How many years is coverage for the Pacific behind schedule? Do you actually fly here and use the internet? Not sure how anyone could think the product we have now is an acceptable service 26 years into the millennium. I’ll take your word for it there is a new system coming in 2027 with better service.

The Pacific gap was caused by a satellite fault in 2023. The replacement launched in November, and should be on line any day now


Based on the most recent launch (ViaSat-3 F2 in November 2025) and previous launches, it typically takes several months to bring a Viasat-3 satellite from launch to full commercial service. Here is the detailed timeline for bringing a ViaSat-3 satellite online:Launch to Geostationary Orbit: The satellite uses its all-electric propulsion system to travel to its final geostationary orbital slot, which takes several months.Deployment & Testing: After reaching its spot, it undergoes weeks of in-orbit testing of the bus and payload.Total Time to Service: For the ViaSat-3 F2 launched on November 13, 2025, the anticipated entry into service is early 2026 (roughly 3–4 months).Previous Example: The ViaSat-3 F1 (launched April 30, 2023) entered commercial service in August 2024 for aviation customers, though this was delayed by an antenna anomaly.

If you think Viatsat is on the same level as Starlink you need your head checked. It’s not even close.

We have both and I can tell you that LEO internet is a total game changer. It’s like sitting in your living room gate to gate. Viasat isn't bad, but it's not what passengers are going to want once they've been exposed to something much better.

and yet more of a game changer will be flying the A350-1K over the pacific versus the 787. totally different experience, expescially in F.

ViaSat will have GEO and LEO abilities when it’s finalized. I’m able to stream freely at door closure without issue vast majority of the time with ViaSat operating on a singular damaged GEO satellite.

Once all three GEO’s are installed and Lightspeed LEO’s are integrated it will be comparable to Starlink. Again, United has no Starlink on any mainline aircraft. Will be at least two to three years for the entire fleet to be equipped. We’ve been offering solid free WiFi for years. If a customer was choosing between carriers for WiFi we’ve had them for awhile now- between being tangled up in FF programs and CC sign ups, no one is leaving Delta for a momentary lapse in wifi comparability.

If ViaSat + Telesat LEO’s end up being trash what’s to stop Delta from swapping to Starlink anyways?

Mods can we split the Starlink vs Viasat talk off from the thread about C-suite level departures? Then maybe re-title the remaining thread that since even the nominally on-topic thread wandered way beyond GH.

Good idea...

For a residential rural customer you are absolutely right. It's not even close. Also for a personal or business jet, not question Starlink is better.

But for a commerical airliner where at people are browsing Instagram and watching Netflix, they won't be able to tell the difference between Viasat-3 and Starlink.

Reminds me of this graph:

https://www.ualberta.ca/en/youalbert...4wqrc0o7a.jpeg