Comment: Inflight Wi-Fi to take-off soon in the UK
Contributors are not employed, compensated or governed by TD, opinions and statements are from the contributor directly
In the UK, the idea of staying productive, entertained and informed at 30,000 feet is currently just that: an idea. But in today’s connected world, we’re rarely out of reach – so when we take to the air, why can’t the sky be the limit?
In the US, it’s becoming increasingly rare to board a flight that doesn’t offer some form of Internet service. In fact, over 50 per cent of aircraft in the US are now equipped with broadband connectivity, with more than 70 per cent of those receiving their services from Gogo. For these US-based airlines, Wi-Fi has become a competitive necessity, as the highly-coveted business traveler has grown to expect to stay connected to work, no matter when and where.
This isn’t the case worldwide. Despite that 80 percent of air travellers in Europe and the Middle East are interested in inflight Wi-Fi according to a recent study conducted by Gogo, airlines in these regions have been slow to offer the technology on their commercial flights. This is in comparison to just 74 percent of US travellers who already have access to these services and in a region where it has been widely successful.
It is clear the importance of Wi-Fi in choosing an airline continues to grow for passengers around the world. Today, more than 20 per cent of passengers say they are looking for Wi-Fi when choosing an airline, which is up from 16 per cent from a similar Gogo study conducted last year. Most people carry some type of Wi-Fi enabled device like a mobile, tablet, or laptop when travelling, and the study revealed that travellers in most countries in Europe and the Middle East are willing to pay for in-flight services. So the question remains – with such strong interest in the Europe and Middle Eastern regions and proven success in the U.S., why haven’t airlines responded?
It all comes down to technology. In the US, most broadband-connected planes utilise an air-to-ground (ATG) system to deliver bandwidth to passengers. In other words, the commercial aircraft receives a signal from cellular towers on the ground as the plane flies overhead.
This ATG technology has proven advantages – it is lightweight, a low-cost solution in terms of both equipment and cost per bit of information when compared to satellite-based services, and typically can be installed overnight without taking the aircraft out of service. These are all huge advantages to airlines, which aim to keep their fleets in the air as much as possible. The disadvantages are that it can’t work over water and the service is limited by the spectrum (or ultimately, bandwidth) that local governments assign to the service.
Airlines that have offered the service in the UK have relied on various flavours of satellite service to using a lower bandwidth technology and another satellite technology that’s higher bandwidth, but has many other issues that make it an economically challenging technology to deploy across a fleet.
That’s all about to change. Later this year, Gogo expects to launch its second-generation satellite technology which Virgin Atlantic has committed to installing, putting them on the cutting edge of in-flight Wi-Fi technology. The technology, called 2Ku, will deliver more than 70 Mbps to the aircraft at half the cost of traditional satellite services, giving passengers access to Internet service at 30,000 feet that’s more comparable to what they might find on the ground.
USE IMAGE: Phil.jpg
Comments are closed.