Having in-flight Wi-Fi service is not something new or groundbreaking, but it is still encouraging to see more and more airlines offer this feature whenever you are traveling to your destination. After all, most of the movies shown during your journey are not the latest blockbusters in cinemas, and there are only so many times you can play some cheap knockoff of Pong in your cramped economy class seat. An internet connection while you are in the air would definitely be more fun to play around with, and JetBlue will be unveiling their in-flight Wi-Fi service sometime in the first quarter of next year, where this free baseline service will be available for the first 30 planes in its fleet at the very least.
JetBlue claims that their in-flight Wi-Fi will be able to deliver “exponentially more bandwidth” compared to other airlines’ Wi-Fi services courtesy of satellite-based technology, but I guess the proof is in the pudding, so we will need to hop on a JetBlue flight before coming to a conclusive decision on that claim. Instead of relying on Gogo, JetBlue will use the satellite service in a partnership with ViaSat. It must be noted that ViaSat’s Exede Internet service does promise a minimum speed of 12Mbps (theoretically) for each passenger, which is sufficient for basic email and browsing. You might need to fork out more for the non-basic service if you want to enjoy movie streaming in the air.
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