WHAT AIR PASSENGERS NEED TO KNOW ABOUT KEEPING CONNECTED.
Not too long ago, air travel was one of the only respites from endless work emails, a time to have a conversation without getting factchecked mid-sentence. Unfortunately for weary business travelers and friends of know-it-alls, all good things must come to an end.
Today, Internet access is common in most airports and on many domestic and long-haul flights, which means that not even a cross-country trip with a layover in Omaha, Neb., can save you from that deadline. According to Scott Ewalt, vice president of product and customer experience at Boingo Wireless, you have the iPhone to thank.
“Most people point to the iPhone as the point when everyone had a computer with them at all times,” he said.
Since then, Ewalt has seen an exponential growth in broadband bandwidth consumption among consumers. “We learned pretty quickly that there were certain locations where usage was high,” he said. Airports, he noted, are places where people have time to kill, which is why Boingo offers connection speeds of 5 megabits per second for free to travelers in airports with Boingo technology. “Our goal is to make Wi-Fi access on the road as fast and easy as it is to connect at home,” he said.
Offering public Internet access on the ground is one thing. But whether you relish the ability to surf Facebook at 10,000 feet or rue the obligation to submit your expense report on time, you have to admit that being able to access the Web when you’re a mile above the ground is an impressive technological feat — especially when you’re flying over large bodies of water.
When in-flight Wi-Fi was first introduced in 2008 by Gogo, it was accomplished using what’s called an Air-to-Ground system, which employed cellular networks to beam a signal into the sky for passing aircraft. “Our ATG system disrupted this industry and has enabled an entirely new passenger experience in-flight,” said Blane Boynton, vice president of product management and network solutions at Gogo.
While this technology was certainly groundbreaking, it wasn’t always reliable. Bandwidth was limited, which led to slow connection speeds and dropped signals. Passengers looking to avoid work still had an excuse for the time being.
Gogo still uses the ATG system, but in 2014, the company upped the Internet ante when it introduced its 2Ku technology, which uses satellites to beam signals down to passing planes, allowing for connectivity speeds of at least 70 megabits per second.
“2Ku gives passengers a similar experience as they would get at home,” Boynton explained. “This includes streaming your favorite content on Netflix or Hulu and similar browsing speeds as if you were on the ground.”
Whether passengers still experience slow speeds and limited connectivity depends on whether the aircraft is equipped with ATG or satellite technology. Boynton said that most major airlines that have partnered with Gogo have or are currently in the process of updating to 2Ku. Gogo is also making enhancements to its ground-based technology that will allow aircraft flying over North America to switch between the ATG and 2Ku systems, depending on which one is faster at any given moment — similarly to how a cell phone automatically connects to the fastest network. The updates are expected in 2018.
That means you’ll need to come up with another excuse to go off the grid.