Hasta La Gadget!

It’s a small miracle that you can open up your laptop and surf the web while soaring through the air in a metal tube some seven miles above the ground, but the experience is inconsistent, and when it works, the connection is often frustratingly sluggish. That’s about to change.

Once focused on undercutting the competition, JetBlue is now best known for its in-flight product: complimentary snacks, 36 channels of free DirecTV and friendly flight attendants. This year, the airline is undergoing a service alteration of sorts. The traditionally all-coach carrier will soon cater to business travelers with a bed-equipped premium cabin, and by the end of next year, all customers will be able to surf the web from 36,000 feet with speeds that rival (or often exceed) what we’re used to on the ground. That new service, powered by ViaSat, is called Fly-Fi, and it’s hitting the skies this November.

We spent a day with JetBlue’s subsidiary, LiveTV, the company responsible for providing in-flight entertainment (IFE) on more than 600 aircraft, including 188 JetBlue planes and some 200 United 737s. If you’ve watched DirecTV while flying either of those airlines, it’s LiveTV that put it there, and soon, the Florida-based firm will be responsible for getting you online, too. Fly-Fi, and its to-be-named United equivalent, will deliver up to 12 Mbps of data — not to the aircraft, but to each and every passenger on board. Join us aboard JetBlue’s first Fly-Fi-equipped Airbus A320 after the break.%Gallery-slideshow90014%

Filed under: Transportation, Wireless, Internet

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Adding satellite WiFi to an airplane isn’t as simple as mounting an antenna up top and flipping the switch on a router — even installing a cockpit printer requires FAA approval, so as you can expect, the Federal Aviation Administration won’t check off on major modifications without some thorough testing. JetBlue’s new Fly-Fi service is well on its way to getting a formal green light, though, and is expected to launch before Q3 is through. This week, the carrier is running through a variety of flight tests with one of its Airbus A320s, including maneuvering the plane with some pretty unusual weight loads, such as the rear center of gravity positioning you can see demonstrated above. After that’s complete, it’s time to wait for FAA certification before moving onto performance testing, and if all goes well, passengers should expect to hook up to ViaSat-1 from 30,000 feet in mere months. Once Fly-Fi goes online, it’ll be by far the fastest commercial in-flight WiFi option — we really can’t wait!

Filed under: Transportation, Wireless, Internet

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Lufthansa’s been pulling (relatively) speedy Ku-band satellite internet from the heavens for a bit over two years, but now trans-Atlantic and trans-Pacific WiFi has finally made its way to a US-based carrier. United, the first US airline to fly the Dreamliner, announced today that a Boeing 747-400 is currently flying around the globe with a constant connection, letting passengers hop online during any portion of the flight — taxi, takeoff and landing being are a few obvious exceptions, but there’s no requirement that the aircraft operate within range of air-to-ground transmitters, a la Gogo.

The installed equipment, manufactured by Panasonic, will provide two tiers of service: Standard, which will range in price from $4 to $15, and a speedier Accelerated flavor, with pricing between $6 and $20. The service, which has also been installed on a pair of regional Airbus A319s, isn’t as speedy as ViaSat’s future Ka-band offering, but it’s a step above what’s currently on board. United also announced plans to bring WiFi to its A320, along with Boeing 737, 757, 767, 777 and 787 aircraft — the airline expects installation to be completed on 300 planes by the end of this year. Still missing on many United flights, however, are power jacks — it’s difficult to take advantage of in-flight WiFi if your laptop is dead.

Update: Satellite WiFi historians may be familiar with Boeing’s failed Connexion service, which promised a similar solution but dissolved prematurely in late 2006. United’s implementation is the first of its kind for a US carrier.

Continue reading United becomes first US airline to offer overseas WiFi with satellite-equipped 747

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Source: United

The more cynical among us would argue that allowing cellphones in-flight is only a guarantee of an even more unpleasant trip, at least for anyone wanting a distraction-free cabin. There must still be a few optimists: Boeing is promising that future production runs of the 747-8 and 777 will have the necessary support for in-flight cellphone use, live TV and internet access that comes through either headrest screens or WiFi. Aircraft with the upgrade should roll off the production lines before the end of 2013, and they’ll be following a slight change to the 787 later this year that makes the technology support a common option. Some of us may wind up reaching for the earplugs in countries where regulators approve in-air wireless, but there’s definite upsides for all but the biggest curmudgeons — Boeing’s moves could lead to more ubiquitous in-flight WiFi next year, on top of ready-made wireless media streaming due in 2014.

Continue reading Boeing 747-8, 777 to join 787 in support for in-flight cellphone use and WiFi, like it or not

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Boeing 747-8, 777 to join 787 in support for in-flight cellphone use and WiFi, like it or not originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 22 Sep 2012 02:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Delta Airlines isn’t a stranger to offering WiFi on many of its domestic US flights, but using Gogo’s air-to-ground connection setup has essentially kept it from taking off over the seas. That’s all set to change come 2013, however, as 150 of Delta’s long-haul aircraft will make use of all those high-bandwidth Ku-band capacity satellites that Gogo has been acquiring over the past few months. The updated setup will ensure that you can update your Facebook status over the likes of the Atlantic, but it won’t be fully rolled out until about 2015. By that time, the airline estimates it’ll be operating around 1,000 Gogo-equipped aircraft worldwide — not too shabby. If anything, the wait to hit 10,000 feet is surely going be more interesting for all the international work-a-holics out there. Hit up the press release after the break for more details in the meantime.

Continue reading Delta expanding Gogo in-flight WiFi to select international flights beginning in 2013

Delta expanding Gogo in-flight WiFi to select international flights beginning in 2013 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Jun 2012 10:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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