LAST week Icelandair unveiled what it described as Europe’s first “gate-to-gate” Wi-Fi service on most of its routes. It says onboard internet will now be switched on from the moment passengers board the plane to when it reaches the gate at the other end—including during takeoff and landing.
It is the latest step in the unstoppable rise of connectivity in the clouds. At the same time that Icelandair was trumpeting its new service, American Airlines announced it is suing its onboad Wi-Fi provider, Gogo, because the service it offers is too slow. In this new frontier speed is of the essence. Meanwhile Lufthansa is to trial a service that allows flyers to connect to their 4G networks on their devices. If successful the technology will likely be taken up by other European carriers in 2017. Another system being developed jointly by Inmarsat, a satellite-maker that is also involved in the Lufthansa trial, and Deutsche Telekom, will allow phones to link to ground masts when at low altitude and to satellites when not.
All of which means that, whether over Wi-Fi or a 4G network, the air will...Continue reading
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