Inflight WiFi and how it works

Inflight Wi-Fi limitations

Inflight Wi-Fi has a lot of potential and can be very fast, however on the planes it is kept in “auto-throttled” mode so that data is equally distributed among all passenger users. Logically, an inflight Internet connection will be much faster when three passengers are using it, than with 33 passengers connected.

Additionally to speed limitations inflight Wi-Fi has hardware limitations. For example, the ATG service has only front- and rear-facing antennas while the Ku satellite receiver will only connect to one satellite at a time. This means that there will be short breakdowns in connection in between available cell towers and satellites.

The quality of connection will also depend on the direction of your flight. Even though the US generally are covered with towers pretty densely, while flying over states with larger stretches and smaller population you are more likely to experience disconnections.

And in the countries with WiFi restrictions due to political policies there will be more stretches without proper connection. Usually your flight crew knows where connection can be lost and they’ll reveal that information at the beginning of the flight.

Even WiFi on board can break, and even that happened due to a minor issue it is not always a quick fix. Non-functional Wi-Fi isn’t a safety-critical aspect of a flight, so unless there’s a major issue, it won't be a cause for delay.

What's the average cost of Wi-Fi on board?

Generally the cost depends on the airline and they say sometimes it may depend on the size of your device — phone, tablet or a laptop. Smaller devices usually consume less traffic, so wireless Internet for them tends to be less expensive.

However it might just be a marketing move, where business travelers need to work on their laptops and will pay a bigger buck anyway. It is said that some ways exist letting you trick your laptop into being a mobile device in order to get those lower fees.

If such an option is available you might want to book your inflight WiFi ahead of time at a lower rate.

Gogo service provider, for example, offers monthly packages to those who travel back and forth a lot. Such packages allow not only use WiFi on their respective airline, but also on other participating airlines.

If you are going to inflight Internet check if your airline will take payment with your miles in case you have some unused ones.

Clearly paying a lot of money will not guarantee you the fastest connection, however the technology is constantly evolving and there are things to look forward to. As airlines are upgrading their planes, inflight Wi-Fi is becoming faster and steadier and is available on more and more directions — domestic and international.

As Internet on board becomes a more common thing and there will be some competition, prices are more likely to become more competitive as well. Although for now it is quite the opposite: Gogo inflight WiFi is quite monopolistic and the prices have only been going up, not down so far.