Delta To Improve In-Flight WiFi With Faster Satellite-Based System

Airline Wi-Fi is notoriously slow, it's easy to get frustrated when online games like Words with Friends are inaccessible at 35,000 ft. There is nothing worse than a long flight when the Wi-Fi that you've paid a premium for can't deliver anything but video that never stops buffering. Long flights will be getting more bearable because Delta is planning to improve its Wi-Fi service's broadband speed and coverage by switching to the Gogo's new 2ku satellite service. This will replace their older Gogo Wi-Fi which was said by frequent-flyers to have speed and coverage availability issues.

Gogo's new 2Ku technology uses a new approach to airline Wi-Fi. 2Ku bounces the wireless signal off antennae on the top of the plane to a satellite in space. This is less interrupted than the older air-to-ground technology wherein antennae under the plane bounced the signal to land locked antenna. Air-to-ground is the main culprit why flights over the ocean had poor Wi-Fi service.

Delta is first focusing the 2Ku satellite upgrade on its long-haul domestic flights. Shorter flights will still get improvements in their Gogo Wi-Fi technology, but it will remain air-to-ground tech. Long-haul international flights will also get upgraded to 2Ku Wi-Fi, but it will come a bit later. The entire Delta international fleet should have the 2ku faster Wi-Fi by the middle of 2016.

Delta may be hoping that this faster satellite Wi-Fi will entice businessmen who still need to be productive during their long flights. They are more likely to buy up the most expensive seats and rely on a single carrier for all of their flying.

Source: Engadget