For years, fleets relied on slow, costly satellite links to stay connected. Now, Starlink has redefined what’s possible, bringing high-speed and low-latency internet to ships, aircraft, and mobile fleets worldwide. Unlike legacy satellite services like Viasat, which offer download speeds up to 150 Mbps and limited upload speeds, Starlink can deliver up to 350 Mbps, a significant improvement for operators accustomed to constrained, unreliable networks.
Starlink transforms mobile industries with real-time communication, higher remote bandwidth, and seamless cloud operations. But with these new capabilities come new challenges. Engineering and infrastructure teams need to understand Starlink, its benefits, and how to maximize its potential across high-friction environments.
What is Starlink for Maritime, Aviation, and Mobile Fleets?
Starlink is SpaceX’s low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite internet service, designed to deliver high-speed, low-latency connectivity anywhere. Unlike traditional geostationary satellites, which orbit far above the Earth and struggle with latency and coverage gaps, Starlink operates a growing constellation of thousands of satellites in low orbit. This network allows ships, planes, and vehicles to maintain a seamless internet connection with speeds closer to terrestrial broadband.
For industries at the edge that depend on mobility, Starlink represents a major shift:
- Maritime: Cargo ships, cruise lines, and offshore operators can now provide crew on-board internet access, enable video-based training, run remote monitoring, and send compliance data in real time, even in the middle of the ocean.
- Aviation: Airlines and private aviation operators can deliver passenger-grade Wi-Fi, improve in-flight operations, and access real-time weather or maintenance updates during flight.
- Mobile Fleets: Emergency response units, long-haul trucking, and logistics fleets gain continuous connectivity in remote areas, ensuring communication, navigation, and data transfer are always available in motion.
Why Starlink Matters for Connectivity at the Edge
Reliable connectivity has always been a struggle for ship, aircraft, and mobile fleet operators. Traditional satellite services provide just enough bandwidth to send emails and basic reports, but speeds are capped, latency is high, and service is often unreliable.
SpaceX changes that, with latency as low as 20-40 ms, Starlink unlocks applications that were once impossible offshore, in the air, or across remote highways. From live video calls to real-time monitoring and faster software updates, Starlink enables fleets to operate more like their land-based counterparts, with connectivity closer to broadband than to old-school satellite links.
However, speed comes at a cost, and managing additional bandwidth presents challenges.
The Starlink Tradeoff: More Speed for More Cost
Legacy satellite services deliver slower speeds but typically offer an unlimited usage pricing option, which means operators can keep the connection running without worrying about every gigabyte consumed.
While Starlink provides far greater speed and lower latency, its pricing model is more expensive and based on capped data tiers, meaning fleets can pay up to three times more than they did with traditional satellite companies and very small aperture terminal (VSAT) technology.
Meanwhile, organizations want to send more data than ever before:
- Vessels now deliver video-based training instead of text manuals.
- Security patches and updates are issued weekly, not annually.
- Incident response now requires photos and video, not just written reports.
So, while Starlink raises the ceiling on speed, demand quickly rises to meet it. The challenges remain the same: too much data, not enough bandwidth, and connectivity that can still be unpredictable.
Why Starlink Alone Isn’t Enough
Starlink has dramatically raised the bar for mobile connectivity. But as with every leap forward, new constraints emerge alongside the benefits. The challenge for operators is that Starlink doesn’t eliminate the classic connectivity pain points.
Rising Costs
Starlink recently retired its unlimited maritime plans, replacing them with capped Global Priority tiers ranging from 50 GB to 2 TB. At these levels, a few hours of HD video calls, routine OS updates, or training video uploads can quickly burn through monthly allocations, leaving operators with steep overage charges or throttled speeds. Under the new Starlink pricing model, customers monitor their connectivity usage to avoid overages and unexpected costs.
Uneven Reliability
Even with its advanced LEO constellation, Starlink isn’t immune to disruptions. Heavy rain, congested networks, or antenna obstructions can still cause connections to drop. For aircraft and moving fleets, handoffs between satellites introduce moments of instability. These interruptions may be brief, but seconds of downtime can have significant consequences for mission-critical workflows such as remote piloting, incident response, or real-time monitoring. Operators often must maintain backup links like L-band or LTE to guarantee continuity.
Shared Bandwidth
On ships and planes, many users share bandwidth concurrently. Crew members, passengers, and staff often use the same Starlink connection for personal browsing, video calls, or entertainment. Without strict policies or advanced bandwidth management, operational traffic—like security updates, compliance uploads, or safety communications—can get crowded out by non-essential consumption. The result is unpredictable performance and rising costs, as personal use accelerates the burn rate of limited data plans.
How Resilio Active Everywhere Maximizes Starlink
Resilio moves data faster, more efficiently, even in limited bandwidth environments. Whether a fleet connects via Starlink, VSAT, LTE, or a mix, Resilio Active Everywhere ensures that data is moved efficiently, reliably, and at scale.
What Makes the Difference:
- Delta Synchronization: Only file changes are transmitted, dramatically reducing the volume of data sent over Starlink.
- Compression: Data is compressed before transfer, further conserving bandwidth and lowering costs.
- Bandwidth Management: Critical jobs can be prioritized, transfers scheduled, and usage controlled to match available capacity.
- Resilient Transfers: Connections may drop, but transfers resume automatically without wasting bandwidth.
- Scale and Automation: Data movement can be centrally managed, monitored, and automated from a handful of vessels to hundreds of endpoints.
With Resilio Active Everywhere, operators can:
- Save money by reducing total data consumption.
- Move data faster and more reliably, even under poor or unstable conditions.
- Stay secure and compliant with timely software updates.
- Scale efficiently across global fleets with automated workflows.
Conclusion
Starlink is a game-changer for high-speed internet at sea, in the air, and on the move, but it isn’t a silver bullet. Data demands, costs, and reliability challenges still remain.
Resilio complements Starlink by making every megabyte count. By minimizing data transfer, managing bandwidth intelligently, and ensuring resilient performance, Resilio helps maritime, aviation, and mobile operators at the edge get the most out of their connectivity and global coverage.
Ready to optimize your Starlink deployment? Schedule a time to talk to one of our connectivity experts, including a quick demo, to learn how we can help you reduce costs and improve fleet performance.
