Originally Posted by
HighwayToHEL
I am currently on QR572, and WiFi is infinitely better than anything I have ever had in the BA rollout (7 US/CA Flights in last 12 months). Browsing is both faster and more stable.
On my last BA (SEA to LHR about a week ago I was getting 7mbps but it was very erratic. On this flight I’m getting 1mbps but it’s stable. Maybe BA are pushing it too hard?
Do the experts here know if QR are using different technology to BA? I know it’s all satellite, and we are currently over water, but I never expected such a dramatic difference.
Maybe I’ve just been unlucky on the BA flights?
QR uses either Inmarsat's Global Xpress (fast) or SITAONAIR's OnAir (VERY slow, but also running on satellites owned by Inmarsat) depending on the plane. It is in the process of converting the OnAir installs to GX over time for many aircraft, too. BA uses Gogo's 2Ku solution for its twin-aisle planes and Inmarsat's EAN for the A320 family.
The long-haul service is all satellite powered but using different satellites and even different frequency bands between the two providers. There are also challenges around contention with other pax on board and with other planes in the same region sharing the same satellite beam. I've had a QR flight where I was basically the only passenger online and it worked great, but as we approached Doha others awoke on board and started using it, plus more QR planes were nearby causing further congestion on the satellite beam, all contributing to a degraded performance on the same plane/flight where it was great previously.
Also consider that the speed test numbers are a single point-in-time reference and rarely reflect real world or sustained use case. Plus, pretty much every inflight connectivity vendor will throttle back your connection if you use too much data too quickly. Running speed test a few times is a spectacular way to trigger that.
Separately, I've seen a report now of the messaging service pricing at GBP 2.99 rather than 1.99. So that also appears to be distance-based or otherwise variable.