After years of diligent work, the much-anticipated arrival of faster and more reliable inflight Wi-Fi is imminent, thanks to the launch of the new ViaSat-3 satellite. The satellite has finally taken off into the vast expanse of space, having departed NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on a recent Sunday evening at 8:26 p.m.
As the satellite makes its journey to its final location, which is expected to take a few more weeks, the focus now turns to the benefits that ViaSat-3 will bring. Among its many advantages, perhaps the most notable is its ability to provide additional capacity for inflight internet users.
ViaSat is renowned as one of the leading providers of satellite-based inflight connectivity, and is currently equipped on nearly 2,000 aircraft worldwide. It can be found on planes flown by American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, JetBlue, and United Airlines. ViaSat is even present on much of American's domestic fleet, while Delta has already fitted its Airbus A319 and A321, as well as its Boeing 737-800, 737-900, and 757-200 fleets, with ViaSat. Delta is committed to extending this upgraded connection (including free connectivity) to its entire mainline fleet by the end of next year. JetBlue, meanwhile, was the first U.S. airline to offer free Wi-Fi on all its planes, all of which are connected to the ViaSat network. Finally, Southwest has pledged to use ViaSat on its forthcoming Boeing 737 MAX deliveries.
While Wi-Fi has become a regular feature of the inflight experience in recent years, its technology hasn't necessarily kept pace with the advances made on the ground. Passengers now expect to stream content and browse social media without any lag or interruption, just as they would do at home. However, existing infrastructure and legacy satellite networks have struggled to provide the necessary speeds and throughput, especially when a planeload of travelers is trying to access the internet simultaneously.
This is where ViaSat-3 comes in. These upgraded satellites are uniquely designed as the highest-capacity satellites ever built, delivering more than 1 Terabit per second (Tbps) of throughput capacity each. Moreover, the company can move this capacity between beams on the satellite, allowing it to boost the signal during peak demand periods in specific areas.
For travelers, this means that ViaSat will be able to allocate capacity as needed to its connected airplanes throughout the day. For instance, it can strengthen the bandwidth delivered to planes passing through major hubs on the East Coast at 9 a.m., such as New York, Boston, Atlanta, and Charlotte, while simultaneously diverting capacity away from planes flying around Los Angeles and San Francisco at 6 a.m. when the West Coast is still waking up.
To sum up, now that ViaSat's third-generation satellite is on its way to its final location, inflight Wi-Fi is about to become faster and more reliable for passengers on ViaSat-equipped aircraft. Although ViaSat has long been the leading provider of satellite-based inflight Wi-Fi, it now faces fierce competition from Elon Musk's Starlink, which recently made its debut on JSX and will be fitted on Hawaiian Airlines jets in the coming months and years.
Earlier this year, the author of this piece flew on a Starlink-enabled JSX jet and was astonished by the network's speed, reliability, and performance. It allowed them to connect five of Apple's most powerful devices without issue, and download shows and music albums in mere seconds. They even hosted a Zoom meeting and a FaceTime call without any buffering or lag.
Regardless of your feelings about working on a plane traveling at 500 miles per hour at 30,000 feet in the air, one thing is certain: the technology to enable it is just weeks away from
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