In-flight Wi-Fi: where is it and why is it taking so long? ~ lotfi

Introduction and retro experience

Back in 2006, I Skyped my wife from a laptop while flying over the icy wastes of Siberia on my way from London to Tokyo. A month later that was impossible, with Boeing ceasing its Connexion Wi-Fi service due to lack of interest.

A decade after they disappeared, Wi-Fi zones at 35,000ft are at last making a comeback – at least in the US. Many US domestic carriers offer in-flight Wi-Fi as standard, but European airlines are seriously lagging behind.

in-flight wi-fi

The right stuff

"In the US, in-flight Wi-Fi is available on most internal flights, and Wi-Fi is complimentary to the passenger, regardless of class," says Sergio Galindo, general manager at IT software and hosting company GFI Software. "Some airlines in Europe have not adopted the service to its fullest potential and it is something that we might see appearing on flights." While Wi-Fi is now available on some select flights in Europe, it's incredibly sporadic.

It's not that the non-US world doesn't want to get online while they fly. A recent global survey conducted by GoGo (a global aero-communications service provider that offers in-flight internet) revealed that 80% of air travellers across Europe and the Middle East want to see Wi-Fi on their flights.

Of these, 38% are able to expense in-flight services, says GoGo, more than any other region, making these passengers a huge untapped resource. The very fact that GoGo underlines this point tells you everything you need to know about in-flight Wi-Fi – Europeans are paying for it, and will continue to do so even as it spreads.

Sergio Galindo

A retro experience

"Ten years ago, internet access was still viewed as being geeky," says Andrew Ferguson, editor at Thinkbroadband, who thinks that a decade ago the demand for Wi-Fi just wasn't there. "However, everyone now wants to be able to check social media and as a result, more and more of us are constantly checking our mobile phones … sitting on a plane without internet access feels like a retro experience."

It definitely does, and though the chance to switch off from work and relax with a movie is cherished by some folks, for business travellers in particular, it's a bind. Many are on the way to meetings that demand research and preparation, and increasingly staff are made to fly economy class.

However, Wi-Fi in the sky is a big challenge. "Providing an internet connection at 30,000ft is faced with a whole different set of challenges than providing a fibre optic cable connection on the ground," says Galindo. "Because the technology wasn't mature enough [a decade ago] many airlines were getting inundated with complaints about bad Wi-Fi service, and it was starting to impact their brand reputation."

From a hardware point of view, Wi-Fi in the noughties was also unsustainable. "The required hardware on-board weighed nearly 1,000 pounds, which made operating costs unreasonable," says Phil Penuela, Head of Global Consumer Insights at GoGo. "Ultimately, the cost of the technology at the time was higher than customer demand."

GoGo's ATG network

The return of in-flight Wi-Fi

Since the technology has improved and costs have decreased, in-flight Wi-Fi is back – just about. "Smaller antenna design is a big factor as previous designs required larger bulges on the aircraft body, increasing fuel costs," says Ferguson. "Consequently, completely flat, streamlined solutions are just around the corner."

GoGo has long been connecting business aircraft, but in 2008 when the service launched on commercial aviation, the iPhone had just been announced and social media was starting to explode. Since then, of course, smartphone usage has skyrocketed. "This has forced airlines to listen to customers and begin implementing in-flight Wi-Fi," says Penuela.

Capacity issues and security risks

How in-flight Wi-Fi works

In-flight Wi-Fi generally operates in one of two ways. What's dominating in North America is an Air to Ground (ATG) network, which is operated exclusively by GoGo in the US, Alaska and Canada. "Air to Ground solutions use a network of cellular towers on the ground to provide connectivity to an aircraft," says Penuela, calling it the smallest, lightest, and most economical connectivity solution. "It can be installed to an aircraft overnight."

"The second solution is satellite connectivity, which is used when coverage from ATG-based systems isn't possible, such as when the plane is flying over water. That explains why Europe is a more difficult market than North America. A satellite is placed on top of the aircraft, and the antenna pans and rotates in order to stay pointed at the directed satellites to bring passengers Wi-Fi access," says Penuela. "Satellite solutions generally deliver higher speeds, but are more expensive than ATG and require a longer installation time."

Virgin America plane

The capacity problem

Virgin America became the first airline to offer GoGo In-flight ATG Wi-Fi service on every flight back in 2009, and now claims peak speeds of 9.8 Mbps, three times that of six years ago.

Satellite speeds are consistently higher, though don't expect to stream movies as easily as on a domestic fibre service. "While in-flight Wi-Fi might not be able to provide the bandwidth to stream movies from services such as Netflix or Amazon Prime, it will be enough for customers to handle some emails, or social media," says Galindo. That's largely because of the fact that capacity must be shared between passengers.

"The capacity limits of the satellite solutions mean catering for a full flight of at least 200 people is still difficult," says Ferguson, whose own in-flight Wi-Fi testing has shown speeds to be variable, but always slow. You can email, surf and book a cab to pick you from the airport, but that's about it.

In-flight Wi-Fi = public Wi-Fi

There are always security risks associated with connecting to a public Wi-Fi network. "There is a possibility that the network can be compromised with malicious software that can infect your device, or that your emails or other personal information can be at risk," says Galindo.

It's also true that 'safe' is a relative concept, and applies to far more than your emails being hacked. "Wi-Fi in aircraft is a lot safer than the large volumes of flammable alcohol that most planes carry in the passenger cabin," suggests Ferguson, but he fears that concerns about people hacking the aircraft control systems are real. "If any Wi-Fi system installed is linked to control systems, and thus a potential target, that would be a very poor design," he says. "The best security would be physically separate networks."

In-flight Wi-Fi

Real-time data saviour

There's also the smaller matter of Malaysian Airlines flight MH370, which vanished last year while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, with the loss of 239 people. As a result, aircraft are looking to send and receive more real-time data to keep in touch, which almost all airline passengers presumed they were already capable of. Flight MH370 suggested this wasn't the case at all.

"For some flights they are potentially in permanent contact now," says Ferguson, but he points out that unpredictable weather and intermittent satellite coverage means that Wi-Fi can easily be interrupted. "It is possible that in-flight data connections may not be 100% reliable."

For now, if you're on a transatlantic plane, you're on your own. "The next step for GoGo will be to not only provide passengers with connectivity and entertainment, but to provide operational solutions for the flight crew," says Penuela. "This includes connecting pilots through an electronic flight bag so they can get real-time data to improve flight safety and operate more efficiently, and connecting components on the aircraft like engines and other key hardware so they can be monitored instantaneously."

The technology still isn't perfected, the speeds are slow, and the business models unsure. While in-flight Wi-Fi is on the way, some say it may not reach maturity until 2020. Even then, Europeans will likely have to pay, though they will likely get a service which is superior to that in the US.

For now, seamless and high speed internet in the air across the globe is still a flight of fancy.