United Airlines is accelerating its rollout of Starlink Wi-Fi. It aims to meet the growing demand for fast, reliable in-flight Wi-Fi, with Starlink promising speeds that support streaming and gaming. The company plans to offer this service free to MileagePlus members. It has also expanded its implementation timeline, aiming to equip its entire two-cabin regional fleet with Starlink by the end of 2025. The company aims to outfit its fleet of nearly 1,000 planes with Starlink Wi-Fi.

Chinese scientists have demonstrated a Low-Latitude, Long-Range Ionospheric (LAIRD) radar that can detect plasma bubbles forming over vast distances, including areas like the Egyptian pyramids and Midway Islands. These disturbances in the Earth's upper atmosphere can disrupt GPS and satellite communications. This unprecedented detection highlights China's advancements in over-the-horizon radar technology, with implications for scientific understanding and strategic applications. While LARID itself is not designed for military surveillance, its underlying technology has been adapted for military radars capable of detecting even stealth aircraft, showcasing the potential of this technology in a broader context.

The next evolution of wireless networking technology, Wi-Fi 8, represents a significant shift from pure speed to enhanced reliability. While Wi-Fi 7 continues to establish itself in the market, with Windows 11 recently adding support, industry experts are already looking ahead to the future of wireless connectivity. The Wi-Fi Alliance projects wireless device adoption to grow dramatically from 233 million devices in 2024 to 2.1 billion by 2028.

Emerging from the Ultra High-Reliability study group in 2022, Wi-Fi 8 (technically known as 802.11bn) remains in its conceptual stage. As technical specifications continue to evolve, industry analysts' access points won't reach the market until late 2028. This development acknowledges a crucial reality: despite theoretical Wi-Fi speeds increasing forty-fold since Wi-Fi 4, users often struggle to achieve advertised speeds due to interference and physical obstacles.

Building upon Wi-Fi 7's advances, including doubled channel bandwidth, 4K QAM encoding, and multi-link operation across multiple frequency bands, Wi-Fi 8 introduces several innovative features. Coordinated Spatial Reuse helps multiple access points adjust their signal strengths to minimize interference in mesh networks, while Coordinated Beamforming directs signals more precisely to intended receivers.

Dynamic Sub-channel Operation allows access points to assign devices to specific sub-channels, potentially increasing throughput by 20 to 80 percent in heavy traffic conditions.

Industry experts view Wi-Fi 8's reliability improvements as valuable for industrial and IoT applications where consistent connectivity is crucial. However, users must upgrade access points and devices to benefit from these advances. The timeline for widespread adoption remains uncertain, with mainstream implementation likely occurring in the late 2020s, coinciding with early 6G developments. In the interim, enterprise-class Wi-Fi 7 access point adoption is expected to accelerate in 2025, with most mainstream device vendors already supporting the standard.