The FAA has significantly increased testing of Starlink under Musk to improve the air traffic control system

The Zhitong Finance App learned that the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has drastically increased the number of connectivity tests for Elon Musk's Starlink (Starlink), hoping to use this to improve the air traffic control system plagued by disruptions.

The FAA told Bloomberg that 41 Starlink connections are currently being tested, including 2 in New Jersey, 28 in Alaska, and 11 in Oklahoma. In March of this year, the agency said it was testing only 8 connection points in these regions.

This development comes as the dispute between President Donald Trump and Musk continues to escalate, and the controversy revolves around the iconic tax and spending bill that Trump signed into force last week.

The FAA stated in a statement that the testing of Starlink (a subsidiary of SpaceX, a space exploration technology company under Musk) in Alaska was located at an “unsafe critical” location to “restore stable meteorological information access channels for pilots and FAA flight service stations.” At two other test sites, Oklahoma City and Atlantic City, the agency said it is still evaluating other technologies such as wireless.

US Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy has been pushing for a comprehensive overhaul of the US air traffic control system, including upgrading telecommunications infrastructure. Congress provided the FAA with $12.5 billion in the President's tax bill to launch a modernization program, a large portion of which will be invested in the telecommunications sector.

Recently, a facility in Philadelphia was interrupted, and the air traffic controller responsible for the flight take-off and landing at Newark Liberty International Airport was temporarily unable to communicate with the aircraft or monitor its movements in busy airspace. This highlights the problems with the old system.

According to reports in February, the FAA is testing the use of Starlink. Musk said at the time that the existing system “is rapidly collapsing” and that his Starlink terminal “has been urgently sent free of charge to relevant agencies to restore air traffic control connections without spending a penny on taxpayers.”

Duffy said in March that Starlink may be part of the FAA telecom network upgrade overall solution — the network is essential to ensure the safe operation of flights and communication between pilots and controllers, but the Department of Transportation still wants to lay new optical fiber lines. However, he also criticized Verizon (VZ.US) for “not acting fast enough.”

In February, people familiar with the matter revealed to foreign media that the FAA is considering canceling a $2.4 billion contract with Verizon, which aims to replace old copper wires with optical fiber technology.

However, since then, Duffy's attitude towards Verizon has eased, praising the company for quickly completing the construction of a new fiber-optic communication network between the Philadelphia facility (responsible for Newark airspace traffic) and a New York site that had overseen the airspace. The Department of Transportation announced last week that the FAA has successfully switched to this new line.

The FAA said Starlink testing was carried out through the agency's telecom infrastructure project, which was managed by L3Harris Technology through a contract.