RandomBaritone

Ummm, no. Not to mention that streaming video -- except for UA's onboard BYOD video, obviously -- is against the terms of service.

In my experience a few months ago NRT>ORD, I saw a max of roughly 3 mbps downstream, and significantly less upstream.

bmwe92fan

Saw this today - a sobering reality of UA's position...

planemechanic

According to this link United has WIFI installed on 444 airplanes out of 700 in the fleet. So you chart is clearly badly out of date.

https://www.united.com/web/en-US/con.../default.aspx?

RandomBaritone

To be fair, the percentage of aircraft with wifi isn't one of the stats explicitly tracked by the graph. United could be ramping up wifi but still be hobbled by the fact that many of its long transatlantic routes don't offer it, thereby reducing the percentage of flight miles with wifi.

hirohito888

Here's another data point:
MUC-IAH 764 $16.99, but I found the connectivity signal not as strong and fast as WiFi on 747 or 777.

bmwe92fan

It's not my chart it was in article I read today - and it IS correct if you consider that UEX is part of UA - UA figures that you reference are mainline only I believe...

sbm12

Generally ~3.5-5mbit down and ~0.5 mbit up.
The chart includes regional flying as well. I am a bit surprised at the way the data shows there, especially given UA's MUCH higher coverage on international flights than the other carriers. I've got a meeting tomorrow morning with the guys who put that data together and plan to ask about it then.

planemechanic

I seriously doubt that the 70% of their aircraft with WIFI installed only fly 30% of the miles flown. The chart is simply out of date.

RandomBaritone

Check post #557: it may also be a result of whether or not United Express aircraft are included.

Non Alcoholic Vodka

ooops... I forgot about the video streaming ban.

on my smartphone(Galaxy Note 4), I use about 800 to 900GB per month, but that's only because I still have UDP from Verizon. Guess there is no way to pick up Verizon signal on planes half way across the Pacific.(if it's legal to begin with)

RandomBaritone

Passengers are never permitted to turn their phones' cellular radios on while in flight, except perhaps in the most extraordinary life or death circumstances.

jstigall

Until they start collecting and turning of passenger cellphones we can all assume it's a lot of hot air though. I bet most people think they have to turn off airplane mode to get wifi back and turn it back on during the flight.

WineCountryUA

Under most terrestrial circumstances, you need to be within 20 miles (35 kms) of a cell tower to establish a link, so the TAPC is inherently a no go (unless the aircraft has a cellular repeater). And even while over a land mass with cell towers but at 7 miles up and moving at >500 mph, there is not going to be reliable connections for multiple technical reasons (handoffs will fail, cell tower radiation pattern is horizontally focused, ...). At best an occasional short-term connection might happen. So even if the FAA and FCC lift their separate bans of cell phone in-flight operation, cell tower to in-flight aircraft will not be a option for the present systems -- hence the airlines have a very viable auxiliary revenue opportunity to offer on-aircraft wifi or cellular repeaters.

jackal

800-900 gigabytes?! Are you sure you don't have an extra 0 on there?

What on earth do you do on your phone? I watch a TON of Netflix over cellular data on my phone and and it's hard for me to get past 20GB per month even if I'm actively trying.

Unless you're tethering your computer and torrenting 200 1080p movies each month, I can't possibly see how you can use that much data, and if you are, I'm shocked Verizon still lets you be their customer.

80-90GB would be more believable, if still a bit excessive. (And I say that as someone who despises data caps and believes that most data charges simply exist to create artificial scarcity and an extra revenue stream.)

--

On a separate note, has UA announced anything about retrofitting the P.S. 752s with satellite wifi instead of Gogo? I despise Gogo--their service is abysmally slow, it's way too expensive, and they're (IMHO) a slimy company--they charge more than double if you forget to buy your flight pass on the ground and buy it in the air.

The one thing Gogo has going for them is real-time chat service, which has helped solve a few sticky glitches (purchased a pass but then can't log in again or switch devices or whatever)--that's something that UA lags at, since the only recourse if that happens is to buy it again and then request a refund after the flight (and one time, I couldn't even do that, because it remembered that I had bought one and wouldn't let me buy another one, even if I logged out). But overall, UA's implementation is much faster and much more reasonably priced.

WineCountryUA

heard nothing about PS change -- but UA is expanding it's Gogo relationship, http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...lying-uax.html