FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - New Planes But Still No Wi-Fi?
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Old Oct 21, 2010, 8:26 am
  #20  
kbjarvis
 
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: NC
Programs: AA ExecPlat, UA Silver, Marriott Titanium, Hilton Diamond, Hyatt Explorist
Posts: 25
Some quick comments -

1) Usage rates on in-flight WiFi is < 3% - Aircell and Row 44, along with their partners, do not provide hard numbers during interviews on actual uptake but tend to speak in generalizations (including at WAEA when they were the entire panel for a WiFi discussion, which I found to be amusing)

2) The business case has still not been made on in-flight WiFi being successful...Aircell funded a significant amount of installs @ ~$80K each (1K+ aircraft installed), Row44 just raised $37M to fund SWA installs @ ~$220K each - result is that Incremental Cost per Bit + HW Cost + Maintenance < Revenue

3) United only has GoGo WiFi on its 757 p.s. NYC-LAX/SFO routes...don't expect to see that expanded to other aircraft in their fleet or Continental's, regardless of the merger

4) Continental's entire domestic mainline fleet (737NG, 757-200) will have the LiveTV product installed at some point next year
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