Four-star Philippine Airlines is one of few international players that offer free Wi-Fi on board, says the blog GeeksMate, which claims to be the fastest-growing community that speaks of new technology, delivers the latest tech updates, provides honest gadget reviews, the Internet of Things and geeky opinions in world of technology.
The other big players offering such connectivity onboard are Emirates, JetBlue, Turkish Airlines, Air China, Hong Kong Airlines and Nok Air.
GeeksMate noted that many premier airlines have announced to offer free Wi-Fi in their flights like Finnair, Srilankan Airlines, Kuwait Airways, TAAG Angola Airlines and WestJet.
Some of the 80 passengers were able to avail themselves of PAL’s free Wi-Fi, when the carrier took delivery of their latest acquisition, the wide-body A350-900 from Toulouse, France, to Manila in July.
In a September feature, GeeksMates asked:
“Ever Wondered How Does In-Flight Wi-Fi Work?”
Of course, it goes on to explain just that, apart from justifying the high cost of availing the technology while high above the cloud. It also offers advice on what steps to take for faster Wi-Fi during your next flight.
Today, flyers would not miss an important e-mail because they are connected to everything on earth even while airborne. “Technology like the in-flight Wi-Fi is slowly spreading over and is changing the way people fly.”
So, how does the new technology provides passengers with their favorite Netflix all the way to 40,000-foot altitudes?
Air-to-ground (ATG) is one method where the signals are sent from the ground towers to the airplane, while the second is the satellite-based IFC where networking is done with the help of satellites.
ATG is mostly used in the domestic flights. It uses two antennas located in the planes belly “for signal reception and transmission,” working in conjunction with the communication towers located on the ground. However, it has its limitations. “As the plane cruises at around 900kph [560 miles an hour], it needs to frequently switch between the stationary towers on the ground to maintain connectivity, but [this] sometimes causes network interruption.”
ATG has slower speeds, despite major improvements. Also, there are no ATG signals for flights over large bodies of water, such as flying across the Pacific Ocean, Indian Ocean, South China Sea, Atlantic Ocean and so on.
This is when satellite IFC mechanism takes over.
“Data is transmitted via the antenna, located on top of the aircraft, and it connects to the nearest satellite signal. Information is passed between the ground and the plane via the satellite. Plane passengers receive Wi-Fi signals through an on-board router.”
There are three types of satellite IFC communications used widely in the aviation industry. They are the L band satellite, the Ku band satellite and the Ka band satellite.
The L band refers to satellite signals in the 1-2GHz range. Signals are transmitted by a small satellite dish. This type of connectivity is the slowest and offers a speed of around 432 kbit/s.
Ku band satellites, meanwhile, lie in the 12-18GHz range. They offer speeds of up to 50Mbps and are good for light use only. They are advanced compared to the L band but lag behind the Ka band satellites.
Ka band satellite connectivity offers the most advanced in-flight connectivity. It uses the 26.5-40GHz segment of the electromagnetic spectrum. Passengers can enjoy speeds of up to 12Mbps individually while using Ka band satellite connectivity.
However, IFC is costly.
Air carriers usually charge up to $7 (P378 at an exchange rate of P54 to $1) to access the Internet through IFC, which is mostly used in international flights.
“Most airlines control the data flow in such a way that each user gets equal bandwidth, irrespective of whether you are reading mail or streaming Netflix. So, the connection is the fastest with the least number of passengers onboard.”
Here are tips for faster Wi-Fi during your flight:
- Ensure that all the apps are updated, so they don’t get updated automatically as you connect to the Wi-Fi.
- Disable photo backup, and try to download the movies and music (you intend to peruse) before boarding the plane.
- Turn off all the tasks that your device performs on “WiFi only” and avoid using multiple apps at a time.
- Be aware that in-flight networking could be hacked to steal your sensitive information.
- Use VPNs to hide your identity, since most of the networks are not secure despite showing the “secure connection” notification.
- Disable Bluetooth and other file-sharing applications. You should log out from all the accounts before you close the browser.