The company offers three types of signal. GX Aviation is the top-of-the line broadband internet service for airlines delivered by satellite. This is a network of four satellites that are whole-owned by Inmarsat. The signal that carries these connections is Ka-band.
This is a portion of the microwave spectrum. The Ka-band frequencies lie between The GX Aviation network can deliver speeds of up to 50 Mbps. However, Inmarsat throttles the speed according to the budget requirements of each airline, so if you discover your flight is covered by this system, you might not necessarily get that top speed.
SwiftBroadband is the cheaper connectivity option offered by Inmarsat. This system is more widely accessed that GX Aviation, partly because it has been in operation for longer. This system is also supported by four satellites that circle the earth.
These are the Inmarsat I-4 family of satellites that communicate with L-band microwave signals. L-band has a frequency range of 1 to 2 GHz and is commonly used for aviation guidance, LTE-based mobile phone networks, and digital audio broadcasting.
The highest speed available with the SwiftBroadband family is Kbps per channel up to a maximum of 2. It combines satellite transmission with terrestrial transceivers. This network only launched in , so it is very new and not widely implemented yet. However, it brings high speed internet connections of up to 50 Mbps at a much lower cost than the price of the GX Aviation service. The European Aviation Network covers 30 countries in Europe , with capacity focused along the most densely served routes on the continent.
The satellite connections broadcast in the S-band spectrum, which is a subset of the microwave range and operates in frequencies between 2 and 4 GHz. Typically, airplane connectivity providers contract in connection servers from a host of local internet service providers all over the world to ensure that antennae are located in every place that airlines overfly. This reliance on local services for ground-to-air communications can result in patchy wifi performance. The first internet service for airlines was created by Gogo, which, at the time, was called Aircell.
That company is still one of the major providers. The connection transmission outside of the plane has the same security measures as the data signal you get on your smartphone on the ground. The wifi signal within the plane is as secure as the service that you get from any wifi router connection. However, you are at risk whenever you connect to a wifi service in a public place. Anyone can set up a wifi hotspot. Any smartphone, tablet or laptop can receive signals from other devices without connecting through the router on the premises.
This enables him to read all of your data as it passes through his computer. In order to protect your internet connections on a plane, as with any public wifi hotspot access, you should use a VPN. This service will apply an extra layer of encryption which extends end to end beyond the control of the hacker and it cannot be cracked. You can read more about VPNs in this article. You also run a legal risk when using wifi on a plane. When traveling over a large body of water, or flying on an airline that only uses satellite connections, then you are safe from local jurisdiction.
However, if you access wifi that is carried through terrestrial transmitters, then technically, you need to comply with the law in each of the countries you pass over on your journey. Each country has different laws about what sites and content is permitted.
Not being a citizen of those countries you fly over does not make you immune from the law. This gives the Pakistani government the right to arrest Pakistani passport holders and those who qualify for a Pakistani passport wherever they are. You could end up breaking that law. So, if one of your grandparents was from Pakistan and you want to access YouTube which is banned in Pakistan on a flight from Cairo to Bangkok, you would be advised to check with the flight map exactly where you are before you hit the ENTER key.
There are many sites and categories of web services that are banned in many of the countries that you fly over. The fact that those sites are legal in your home country is no defense from arrest.
Those VPNs that will protect you from hackers will also protect you from snoopers and government spooks because they make it impossible for anyone who intercepts your communications from reading their contents, thanks to encryption. Internet access on planes is only going to get better and more widespread. Make sure that you keep your connections private as technology makes more access to more complicated content possible. Do you regularly use wifi on planes? Even so, people are still willing to cough up their cash to post pictures of clouds mid-flight, or do some actual work.
That's more than what Walmart is worth now. But if it's such a huge industry, why does in-flight WiFi still suck? First, we need to talk about how these planes, speeding around at hundreds of miles an hour, 36, feet in the air, can even get WiFi. There are two ways: towers on the ground or satellites in space. Let's look at the towers. This method is called air-to-ground, or ATG for short.
Antennas on the belly of the craft pick up signals from cell towers on the ground. The benefit? You'll get less delay because the towers are closer to your plane than a satellite. The downside? No towers, no signals. That means when you're flying over large bodies of water, above mountains, or passing over countries with cell towers that restrict WiFi access, you probably won't get any WiFi. So, what about satellites?
The big dome-shaped antenna on top of the plane will pick up signals from the satellites. These satellite-based systems will either use Ku-band or Ka-band connections, which is similar to 3G versus 4G. There's a whole debate on whether Ku or Ka band is better, but they're both way faster than ATG systems. But when you're sharing internet with a couple hundred other people, traveling miles per hour, 36, feet in the air, there's bound to be a hiccup or two.
But towers versus satellite isn't the only thing that affects whether you'll be able to stream this week's episode of "The Bachelor" or not. The quality and price of your in-flight WiFi actually depend on four more things: your airline, aircraft, the in-flight Wi-Fi provider, and the region you're traveling to and from.
First of all, in an effort to cut costs, some airlines, like Frontier, don't even offer WiFi. But just because the airline offers WiFi doesn't mean your plane supports it. Some aircraft aren't even built with WiFi capabilities. Then there's the provider. They all offer different speeds, which is crucial for watching those meltdowns in HD.
And lastly, you'll need to factor in your route. If you're flying over a lot of mountains or an ocean, there probably won't be many towers along the way.
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