American Airlines Unhappy With Gogo

Have you used in-flight internet before? It certainly brings back memories of those 28.8k modems at home, doesn’t it? American Airlines is not too happy with in-flight Internet provider Gogo, having filed a lawsuit against them as part of an attempt to sever their contract, so that American Airlines can look to someone else whom they think are able to provide far better service. The suit claims that ViaSat offers a speedier service to competing airlines, such as Virgin America, Jet Blue, and United Airlines, and this is the rock on which American Airlines stands, believing that it opens up a door for the airlines to cancel the contract agreement and make a provider switch. After all, this will then allow American Airlines to offer in-air connections to their passengers in order to be on a par with the rest of the competition.

Gogo has already been notified that “ViaSat offers an in-flight connectivity system that materially improves on GoGo’s air-to-ground system,” and interestingly enough, American’s contract with Gogo is touted to come with clauses that enables it to renegotiate as well as terminate the agreement should another company have better services on offer.

Gogo makes use of satellite-based connections alongside several other competitors, where the 2Ku satellite service will deliver a shared connection speed of up to 70Mbps. Theoretically speaking, this should enable Gogo to match ViaSat’s service at the very least, and Gogo affirms, “We believe that 2Ku is the best performing technology in the market.” We wonder if American Airlines succeeds in severing their contract with Gogo, will Delta Airlines follow suit?

Edwin Kee
Categories: Transportation
Tags: Gogo, internet