Virgin America Elevate - Crummy wifi BOS-SFO

Flew the BOS to SFO flight this am. Download speed was .07mps. Barely useable. Not sure what the solution is, but mine would be to raise the price if they are not able to properly gate bandwidth hogs. All I want to be able to accomplish is email and some web research. I would have posted this inflight, but the connection was too slow to load FT.

I don't recall it being that way the last time I flew. Is this typical?

In my experience (probably 30 flights BOS-SFO and BOS-LAX, both directions), yes. Gogo does a terrible job of constraining bandwidth hogs. There is only 3.6MBps available for the entire plane, and a couple of videos can suck it up completely. During the free promos during the end-of-year holidays the service is completely unusable. Fortunately during normal periods not many people choose to pay for the service, so the most of the time it is usable.

I agree, it's frustrating. i would check with GoGoInflight.com, to see if they would offer you a refund or a credit.

There is only 3.6MBps available for the entire plane, and a couple of videos can suck it up completely.

Wow -- that's about my upload speed via cable modem. This for all users on the plane?

Good thing Gogo announced they are quadrupling the pipeline in 2012

Of course the airlines will have to update the hardware to take advantage of this. VX is small enough they can do it relatively quickly.


The large airlines will no doubt take years tp upgrade what they barely have finished installing.

Wow -- that's about my upload speed via cable modem. This for all users on the plane?

Yes. You can see the details easily with a Google search.

That ethernet port below every seat has been mighty tempting for a long time now. Has VX ever suggested that they'll ever enable it for passenger usage?

That ethernet port below every seat has been mighty tempting for a long time now. Has VX ever suggested that they'll ever enable it for passenger usage?

That would not help, as the limiting factor is bandwidth to the ground.

Welcome to Flyertalk!

UA's wi-fi speed is even slower. :D

UA's wi-fi speed is even slower. :D

What is it on p.s. flights? Are all gogo installations not the same?