A big move to improve airplane Wi-Fi service

Once panned for its service, Gogo may have hit pay dirt with new 2Ku technology

For years, people have cursed lousy, expensive Wi-Fi on airplanes, with most of the ire directed at Gogo, the largest player in the field.

Soon there may be fewer F-bombs dropped at 35,000 feet. Gogo is maturing into the world of broadband satellite coverage in a technology shift that will offer flyers greater bandwidth and vastly broader geographic coverage.

“Bandwidth equals revenue. Bandwidth equals better customer service,” chief executive officer Michael Small said in an interview at Gogo’s downtown Chicago headquarters. “It’s literally that simple.”

The new system is called 2Ku, because it offers two antenna arrays to receive and send on the Ku band spectrum. Gogo says its system protrudes only 16 centimetres above the airframe, reducing drag.

Last week, Gogo demonstrated 2Ku for reporters aboard its Boeing 737 test airplane — dubbed Jimmy Ray, after the company’s founder — with two flights around Indiana. Two doz- en aviation and technology reporters trooped aboard Jimmy Ray with an arsenal of gadgets, eager to hurl the most data-intensive activities — Netflix, Facetime, YouTube, Periscope — at Gogo’s new technology.

It was a small horde of “data-hungry journalists on board all trying to kill the system,” said Jason Rabinowitz, manager of data research for Routehappy, a travel startup.

Gogo’s new product acquitted itself admirably, with high definition YouTube videos streaming just fine. The biggest hiccup on the test flight appeared to be page-load latency, a bit of a hesitation before many web pag- es loaded. Once loaded, they worked fine, too.

Gogo touts the dual-band Ku service as capable of delivering top speeds of 70 megabits per second, compared to the 9.8 Mbps of its former speed leader, a ground-based technology called ATG4. Over time, as satellite-beaming techniques are perfected, 100 Mbps will be possible, Small said.

Two other big questions remain — How will the system fare on flights with hundreds of gadget-toting passengers? The company says it has stressed 2Ku on numerous test flights with dozens of devices across a range of locations and hasn’t found bandwidth problems. What will airlines charge for it? Unless you’re sitting in first class, free is almost certainly not on the price menu. Small said the company isn’t ready to discuss pricing.

The new service was announced in April of last year and is hitting the aviation market as Gogo’s dominance of the inflight Wi-Fi industry is under assault by several rivals, including ViaSat, Panasonic, and Global Eagle Entertainment.

Gogo launched in 2011 but grew out of Aircell, the seatback phone of the 1990s.