While a recent survey showed that a majority of passengers would give up an amenity for better in-flight WiFi, actually getting that better signal to the passenger is not an easy task. Last year, GoGo announced ATG-4, a higher bandwidth, higher capacity version of their existing network. Virgin America was the first carrier to launch ATG-4, and now a WSJ report says Virgin America will once again be the launch customer of the next generation of GoGo in-flight internet.
The United States is extremely lucky to have a ground based system, but it seems that simply is not enough to provide the speeds passengers now demand. Later today, GoGo and Virgin American will announce a new system that combines the ground based ATG-4 network, as well as a Ka-band satellite based solution for added bandwidth and reliability. The addition of a satellite connection should boost speeds by six times, reaching speeds of 60 megabits per second to each airplane, according to the WSJ article. Virgin America expects their first aircraft to be up and running with the new technology in the second half of 2014. The new satellite system (which may work outside the continental U.S., but that is still unconfirmed) may also be the last piece in the puzzle that Virgin American needed before starting service to Hawaii. The new hybrid system will not operate like existing satellite WiFi options. The installed satellite equipment will be receive only, meaning the system will rely entirely on the ATG network for transmitting data. Therefore, the system will not work when outside of the GoGo terrestrial network. The lack of transmission equipment on the satellite antenna will reduce its initial cost and overall footprint, bringing down operational costs.
In January of this year, American Airlines announced that all deliveries of domestic aircraft subsequent to the Airbus A319 would have such a hybrid system installed, but have remained silent on that since. This is most likely what American had in mind with that announcement.
Meanwhile, JetBlue is finally about ready to launch their Ka-band satellite WiFi solution, which promises even higher speeds than the hybrid Gogo system. It sure is an interesting time to be a bandwidth hungry passenger.
