The flying experience has changed significantly over the past few years. Some airlines have scaled down so much that they barely offer passengers drinks, and Spirit Airlines even once contemplated charging passengers to use the bathroom. One bright spot for air travel has been Internet access. It’s wonderful being connected during long flights, however, Internet access in the air has been extremely slow. According to engadget.com:
“It’s a small miracle that you can open up your laptop and surf the web while soaring through the air in a metal tube some seven miles above the ground, but the experience is inconsistent, and when it works, the connection is often frustratingly sluggish. That’s about to change.
“Once focused on undercutting the competition, JetBlue is now best known for its in-flight product: complimentary snacks, 36 channels of free DirecTV and friendly flight attendants. This year, the airline is undergoing a service alteration of sorts. The traditionally all-coach carrier will soon cater to business travelers with a bed-equipped premium cabin, and by the end of next year, all customers will be able to surf the web from 36,000 feet with speeds that rival (or often exceed) what we’re used to on the ground. That new service, powered by ViaSat, is called Fly-Fi, and it’s hitting the skies this November.”
The service is being provided by JetBlue’s subsidiary LiveTV and the Fly-Fi service is expected to deliver speeds of 12 Mbps to each user. That is just as fast many home Internet services, and significantly faster than anything currently being offered on any other airline.
Check out the Fly-Fi video below.
