British Airways' Starlink deal and the future of connectivity

When British Airways announced that every passenger on its flights would soon enjoy free Starlink-powered Wi-Fi, it was widely regarded in the media as a customer experience upgrade. But there’s something deeper at play here. It’s just the latest in a long line of deals and innovations that reinforce the idea that connectivity is becoming an expectation — or even a necessity — rather than a luxury. Whether at home, in the office, in a remote part of the world or 38,000 feet in the air, people expect to remain continuously connected to the internet. And every step towards achieving ubiquitous connectivity is quietly transforming the way our global networks are designed and interlinked.

Satellite connectivity is still mostly considered a niche or back-up solution. It can deliver extensive coverage and bring connectivity to underserved areas, but it’s expensive to deploy and still struggles to deliver the low-latency connections required to facilitate modern and increasingly common applications like real-time AI inference. But steps like the British Airways–Starlink deal raise the profile of satellite technology and point to a future where the lines between terrestrial and space-based networks will start to blur, potentially creating a new layer in our global connectivity stack.

DE-CIX recently commissioned a representative survey in Germany which showed that 70% of people would use satellite internet if it were stable and widely available, which reflects what we’re actively seeing in the market. The technology is ready, and so is public demand, though cost remains a consideration for many consumers. Latency remains one of the key obstacles to make it a viable alternative to fibre and mobile connectivity. That might not matter for someone streaming a film on a long-haul flight or checking their emails as they fly from one business meeting to another, but for an increasing number of applications, the distance between orbit and Earth introduces delay that can make or break functionality.

British Airways’ decision to partner with Starlink is a huge vote of confidence in satellite technology and will do much for its reputation. But for it to become core to our global connectivity infrastructure, the next steps must be addressing latency and building the right interconnection pathways, both on Earth and above it. Only by intelligently integrating satellite constellations with terrestrial networks can we bring latency down to levels suitable for real-time workloads like AI inference and autonomous systems. Through DE-CIX’s Space-IX initiative and the European Space Agency’s OFELIAS project, we are exploring how this might take shape. OFELIAS is studying the use of laser-based optical communication links to connect satellites directly to ground stations, instead of using traditional radio frequencies. These optical links can transmit far more data, with reduced latency, potentially bringing space-based connectivity closer to the fibre-like performance we’re used to on the ground. That will create the possibility of an interconnected ecosystem that spans the Earth and orbit to deliver first-class connectivity wherever humans happen to be.

Soon, the ‘internet in the sky’ may become an essential part of our connectivity backbone, linking people, businesses and intelligent systems everywhere — but only if we invest in the technology and infrastructure to make it happen.

*Ivo Ivanov has been Chief Executive Officer at DE-CIX and Chair of the Board of the DE-CIX Group AG since 2022. Prior to this, Ivanov was Chief Operating Officer of DE-CIX and Chief Executive Officer of DE-CIX International, responsible for the global business activities of the leading Internet Exchange operator in the world. He has more than 20 years of experience in the regulatory, legal and commercial internet environment. Ranked as one of the top 100 most influential professionals of the telecom industry (Capacity Magazine’s Power 100 listing, 2021/2022), Ivo is regularly invited to share his vision and thought leadership in various industry-leading conferences around the globe.

Top image credit: iStock.com/Suwaree Tangbovornpichet