I watched the World Cup at 35,000ft on Virgin Atlantic's new Starlink Wi-Fi — and its 120Mbps speeds were finally good enough live sport
THE SO WHAT
Starlink delivering ~120 Mbps good enough for live World Cup streaming at 35,000 feet turns in-flight connectivity from a perk into an expectation. If your product assumes “offline” air time, shorten that window—high-bandwidth, always-on passengers will expect real-time, not deferred, experiences.
READ THE SOURCE
MORE FROM THE WIRE
Tech & InnovationApple’s Sweeping Price Increases Bring Home the Costs of the AI Era
Apple pushing broad price hikes across hardware and services is the clearest signal yet that on-device AI and heavier cloud workloads are being passed straight through to consumers. For operators, assume AI-native products will carry structurally higher unit economics—and pressure will grow to prove tangible value, not just feature parity.
Tech & InnovationSpaceX could be planning to offer a Starlink mobile network for consumers, reports say — but some experts think it's pie in the sky
A Starlink mobile network—even if technically and regulatorily messy—would pressure terrestrial carriers on coverage guarantees more than on price. If your product depends on reliable connectivity in remote or disaster-prone areas, start modeling what a satellite-first or hybrid mobile option would unlock over the next 3–5 years.
Tech & InnovationCalifornia will tax downloaded software for the first time as part of a $351.7 billion budget deal
California extending sales tax to downloaded prewritten software—targeting roughly $2 billion in new revenue—blurs the line between SaaS and software licenses from a tax perspective. If you sell into or operate from California, get your tax and pricing teams aligned now on how this hits margins, list prices, and contract structures for packaged and AI add-on software.
Tech & InnovationForget the ‘Sell America’ trade: Why U.S. markets keep proving the naysayers wrong
Persistent foreign inflows and a dominant dollar mean U.S. risk assets still have structural tailwinds—especially for dollar-denominated tech and AI bets. For operators, this supports planning around continued U.S.-centric capital access rather than a near-term regime shift to multipolar funding.