United Airlines Quietly Turned Off Starlink Wi-Fi On All Regional Flights, Here's Why

The next big thing at United Airlines is Starlink internet, which the airline eventually intends to provide on all of its planes. The first ones to get it are a couple of dozen Embraer E175 regional jets. The initial rollout hasn't gone so well, with Starlink being quietly deactivated on these first few planes due to interference with the aircraft's radio systems.

Unlike other radio interference issues that caused pilots to abort landing at a few hundred feet, this one was not a safety concern. Instead, it was limited to static on the two-way VHF radios used to communicate with air traffic control. The source of this static was tracked down to the aircraft's Starlink transmissions getting into the VHF radios where they don't belong. United has shut down Starlink on all airplanes equipped with it as a precaution until it can address and fix the problem.

In a statement provided to The Points Guy, who first broke the story, United said, "Starlink is now installed on about two dozen United regional aircraft. United and Starlink teams are working together to address a small number of reports of static interference during the operation of the Wi-Fi system, which is fairly common with any new airline Wi-Fi provider. We expect the service to be back up and running on these aircraft soon." Indeed, United encountered a similar issue with the Viasat satellite internet system when it was first launched.

Issues like this aren't limited to Starlink. They can happen anytime radio transmitters and receivers are in close proximity to each other. Aircraft radios operate on 118 to 137 MHz, and Starlink's satellite uplink operates in the 14 to 14.5 GHz range and above, so it's not that they're on the same frequency. Starlink's transmitter may simply be overloading the two-way aircraft radio with too much power too close to its antenna.

Another culprit could be electromagnetic interference (EMI). It comes not only from transmitters like Starlink and cell phones, but also from electronic equipment besides radios, and even power lines. Sometimes nearby radio equipment can pick up the electromagnetic field that a device generates just by operating. In both cases, turning off the offending equipment eliminates the problem, as United has done on its Starlink-equipped aircraft.

There are several possible ways to fix the problem permanently. One is to move the devices or their antennas farther away from each other. Another is to install physical shielding around the devices to either contain their own EMI or prevent it from affecting them. The aircraft radios can also have filters installed to block the specific type of interference that Starlink appears to be generating. These are all simple fixes, and United expects to have Starlink back online within weeks. That's good, because the FAA is adopting Starlink in a big way and could run into similar issues.