Goodbye to boredom on the plane: Iberia offers free wifi with Starlink at 500 Mbps
If you’re one of those who look with resignation at the screen of the seat in front of you when traveling by plane, we have good news. Iberia has started offering free wifi on all its flights thanks to an agreement with Starlink, the satellite network of SpaceX, Elon Musk’s company. And it’s not cheap internet: it promises speeds of up to 500 Mbps, something comparable to the fiber optic you have at home.
How does it work? Instead of relying on antennas on the ground (which don’t work when the plane flies over the ocean), Starlink uses a constellation of thousands of small satellites orbiting the Earth at low altitude. The plane carries a special antenna on the fuselage that connects to these satellites, and they in turn link up with ground stations. The result is that you can watch Netflix, make video calls or work with cloud documents while flying at 10,000 meters of altitude, without the connection dropping. Until now, wifi on planes used to be expensive, slow and only worked on routes over solid ground.
Iberia has started installing the system on its long-haul aircraft and expects to have the entire fleet equipped throughout 2026. The service is completely free for all passengers, with no need to pay extra. You only need a device with wifi —phone, tablet or computer— and connect as you would anywhere else. For an ordinary person, this means long flights will stop being that dead time when you can’t do anything. With small children, watching a movie or even working during the trip will be much easier. And everything points to rival airlines not taking long to follow the same path.
— Marta, for inteligencia intermitente.
