At first, being able to get an Internet connection on an airplane seemed like one of life's modern miracles.
Soon enough, though, passengers got a little jaded and started complaining about how slow that connection could sometimes be. Now the companies offering in-air Wi-Fi say they are trying out ways to speed things up and broaden the service's availability.
Planes use antennas to transmit signals to and from towers on the ground or satellites in the sky, which makes it more challenging for them to get an Internet connection than it would be for a household or a cellphone.
Gogo Wireless, which provides in-air Wi-Fi for most domestic airlines, including Virgin America, Delta Air Lines and US Airways, says it is working on upgrading its service by early next year. It says its improved technology will point an antenna toward the nearest tower, using the network more efficiently and increasing capacity.
But there are limitations to getting Internet access through cell towers on the ground: once a plane heads out over the ocean, it can no longer get a signal. That is where satellites come in. Transponders on satellites in geostationary orbit shuttle data between the aircraft and the ground. Gogo says Delta's international flights will be the first to use its satellite service, which will begin operating early in 2013.
Southwest Airlines uses an Internet provider called Row 44 which relies solely on satellites. Row 44 says it is experimenting with a dedicated Internet video service for live sports and news channels. These will be available on 20 of its aircraft shortly, it says. That means people flying Southwest will have two options: buying Wi-Fi for general Web surfing or paying for live TV access on their devices.
John LaValle, chief executive of Row 44, said creating a separate TV service could help manage the consumption of bandwidth on an airplane. Customers streaming live TV would use a portion of the bandwidth that was dedicated for that use, he said. Those using Wi-Fi to browse the Web would presumably get a smoother connection if some of the heavy video viewers were moved onto the live TV service.
Both the live TV and Wi-Fi services will be monitored to see if they perform well together, and if successful, the TV service will be added to all of Southwest's Internet-enabled planes by the end of the year, according to Row 44.
LaValle said the advantage of using a satellite system was that performance could be more easily improved. If some aircraft seem to be getting sluggish service, a satellite provider could allocate more transponders for extra bandwidth. He said Row 44 had to do this when the first few Southwest planes got Wi-Fi. "We had so much capacity coming into the few planes that it was like putting out the birthday candles with a fire extinguisher," he said.
That was before passengers discovered that they could not bear to be away from office email and Facebook at 30,000 feet.
Soon enough, though, passengers got a little jaded and started complaining about how slow that connection could sometimes be. Now the companies offering in-air Wi-Fi say they are trying out ways to speed things up and broaden the service's availability.
Planes use antennas to transmit signals to and from towers on the ground or satellites in the sky, which makes it more challenging for them to get an Internet connection than it would be for a household or a cellphone.
Gogo Wireless, which provides in-air Wi-Fi for most domestic airlines, including Virgin America, Delta Air Lines and US Airways, says it is working on upgrading its service by early next year. It says its improved technology will point an antenna toward the nearest tower, using the network more efficiently and increasing capacity.
But there are limitations to getting Internet access through cell towers on the ground: once a plane heads out over the ocean, it can no longer get a signal. That is where satellites come in. Transponders on satellites in geostationary orbit shuttle data between the aircraft and the ground. Gogo says Delta's international flights will be the first to use its satellite service, which will begin operating early in 2013.
Southwest Airlines uses an Internet provider called Row 44 which relies solely on satellites. Row 44 says it is experimenting with a dedicated Internet video service for live sports and news channels. These will be available on 20 of its aircraft shortly, it says. That means people flying Southwest will have two options: buying Wi-Fi for general Web surfing or paying for live TV access on their devices.
John LaValle, chief executive of Row 44, said creating a separate TV service could help manage the consumption of bandwidth on an airplane. Customers streaming live TV would use a portion of the bandwidth that was dedicated for that use, he said. Those using Wi-Fi to browse the Web would presumably get a smoother connection if some of the heavy video viewers were moved onto the live TV service.
Both the live TV and Wi-Fi services will be monitored to see if they perform well together, and if successful, the TV service will be added to all of Southwest's Internet-enabled planes by the end of the year, according to Row 44.
LaValle said the advantage of using a satellite system was that performance could be more easily improved. If some aircraft seem to be getting sluggish service, a satellite provider could allocate more transponders for extra bandwidth. He said Row 44 had to do this when the first few Southwest planes got Wi-Fi. "We had so much capacity coming into the few planes that it was like putting out the birthday candles with a fire extinguisher," he said.
That was before passengers discovered that they could not bear to be away from office email and Facebook at 30,000 feet.