JetBlue will begin offering free in-flight Wi-Fi that is supposedly
faster than anything its competitors have, according to The Verge.
An internal company e-mail recently sent updated employees about the new high-speed wireless plans that should be hitting the fleet in the first quarter of 2013. The official announcement is expected to be made at the World Low Cost Airlines Conference this week, but The Verge got a copy of the e-mail today.
According to JetBlue, ViaSat can load 10 Web pages in a little more than a minute, whereas other in-flight Wi-Fi services can take up to 10 minutes to achieve the same feat. It says that ViaSat uses a different technology that before now has been available only to government and private planes. The company says that it will be fast enough to stream movies and TV shows on Netflix while on board.
In addition to getting a competitive edge with a faster service, the company also said that it will be offering the service for free at first. Apparently, while JetBlue irons out the kinks, the baseline connectivity will be free until the first 30 airplanes are loaded with the service. It`s not yet clear what the airline will charge for the service once the trial period ends.
Last year, Virgin America stepped up its Wi-Fi service by offering Gogo`s next-generation ATG-4 service. According to Virgin America, the new service increased Wi-Fi capacity by about four times over what the previous performance was.
An internal company e-mail recently sent updated employees about the new high-speed wireless plans that should be hitting the fleet in the first quarter of 2013. The official announcement is expected to be made at the World Low Cost Airlines Conference this week, but The Verge got a copy of the e-mail today.
According to JetBlue, ViaSat can load 10 Web pages in a little more than a minute, whereas other in-flight Wi-Fi services can take up to 10 minutes to achieve the same feat. It says that ViaSat uses a different technology that before now has been available only to government and private planes. The company says that it will be fast enough to stream movies and TV shows on Netflix while on board.
In addition to getting a competitive edge with a faster service, the company also said that it will be offering the service for free at first. Apparently, while JetBlue irons out the kinks, the baseline connectivity will be free until the first 30 airplanes are loaded with the service. It`s not yet clear what the airline will charge for the service once the trial period ends.
Last year, Virgin America stepped up its Wi-Fi service by offering Gogo`s next-generation ATG-4 service. According to Virgin America, the new service increased Wi-Fi capacity by about four times over what the previous performance was.
