Passengers flying with Virgin Atlantic will soon be able to enjoy on-board Wi-Fi of up to 70Mbps, thanks to a new partnership with Gogo.
The deal means Virgin Atlantic is the first European carrier to use Gogo’s 2Ku system. Moreover, the in-flight Wi-Fi is set to be much faster than Gogo’s ground-based wireless broadband, which only reaches speeds of 3.1Mbps, reports pocket-lint.com.
No set price has been announced for the in-flight Wi-Fi service yet, but Gogo currently charges $14 (around £8.36) for an all-day pass bought in advance for use on North American planes.
In order to provide fast in-flight Wi-Fi, Gogo has improved its wireless delivery. Currently on North American flights ‘Ground to Orbit’ tech is used, although Gogo’s 2Ku service uses the same low-profile antennas, instead of its standard Air-to-Ground solution for the return link to the ground. This enables the Wi-Fi to operate on all long-haul international flights, as well as increasing the speed.
Reuben Arnold, brand and customer engagement director for Virgin Atlantic, said Gogo’s service was chosen because the carrier was so impressed with its solution.
He was quoted by techtimes.com as saying: “We’re always looking at ways to enhance the on-board experience for our customers and expanding in-flight connectivity across our fleet is just one of the ways in which we are doing this.”
