coleo

What is the reason that the wide body aircraft do not have wifi? I am the first to admit enjoying no connectivity so no one can bother me in general, but sometimes it is a necessary addition when flying for business during business hours.

rehoult

They use a different system from the narrowbody planes (satellite vs ground based), and I understand that there were some issues between AC and GoGo on the installation of the satellite version.

coleo

I spent an hour on GOGO Customer Chat today. Got disconnected at least 15 times and had to be transferred to 2 agents. After pleading with them they eventually refunded $75 of passes. They also said:

"I added a flight pass to your account for today I know all planes are being equipped with satellite technology it will not be soon enough for our customers"

Jumper Jack

Actually find it halirious that I can stream Netflix at full HD on a cruise ship with 9000 prople for $18 Cad a day but AC still can't offer basic wifi on longhaul and want to charge the same on a 4 hour TCON flight for some garbage wifi speed.

Diabeetus

I thought it was $29 a TCON flight?

If they had better pricing, then I would pay for it more often.

coleo

My experience with the US Mobile Unlimited Hot Spot thing. I bought a pass that was activated Aug 4 and expired Sept 6; it does not auto-renew apparently. Today I went onto US Mobile so I could see if I needed to reactivate and there was no option or any indication other than a "Waiting List". I chatted quickly with CSR Bot and this was response:

"please note that right now our development team is working to fix the problem, so you will not be able to renew you wifi plan right now unfortunately. But once the problem is resolved we will inform you right away. let me have updated the email here where it say in red "sold out join waitlist" https://www.usmobile.com/wifiI'm sincerely sorry, for the time being we're out of the WiFI plans, we're in the process of procuring more of them. However, just for reference when it comes to the WiFi plan, whenever a new one is purchased, it is a new pass, we're currently out of passes. If you'd like I can add your name to the waiting list."

All in all I would give it 5/10. iPass goes crazy when connecting to hotels/lounge hot spots, so will uninstall until this US Mobile pass comes back for $10/month.

jaysona

I find even more hilarious that you think an aircraft with a ~20cm receiver should have the same bandwidth capability as a cruise ship that has multiple 2.4 Meter receivers.

Also, I suspect majority of people on a cruise ship are engaged in activities other that watching Netflix, well maybe the chill part is accurate.

Whereas on an aircraft, most people are probably trying to simultaneously use the very limited bandwidth available to the aircraft.

songsc

Agree, and it's not only the size that matters. The dish antennas used on ships have a much higher dBi gain comparing to the patch antennas used on aircrafts with Satcom hump, even if they are the same size and operate under the same frequency. Not to mention that the dish antennas can point directly to the radio source for better directivity gain.

Also with limited space and various constraints in weight and power consumption, the amplifier and filter on aircrafts are not as good as the ones used for Maritimes in terms of gain and SNR.

KenHamer

Delta flights to offer free in-flight texting

http://money.cnn.com/2017/09/27/tech...ing/index.html

Something for AC flyers to look for in 2032.

Erome

Hi All,

This may not belong here - but I'm not sure if the GoGo is specific for each carrier.

Question: The GoGo wifi is accessed on yearly subscription by a password and user ID correct?

Could my wife and I share that login and use it at different times? I.e if I'm flying Monday could she login, and if she's flying Tuesday could she login?

Thanks!

yyznomad

Yes, yes, and yes.

canadiancow

Well, that's probably against the terms, but if you're asking from a technical perspective, see yyznomad's reply.

YEG_SE4Life

When you subscribe to a wifi pass, you agree not to share it. CC is correct, it is meant as a pass for one passenger.

Jumper Jack

So what is actually happening with widebody internet?

BELOW: AC's own press release from March 2016
So the project is well one year behind schedule?

ChrisA330

This is from a transcript of the most recent analyst call covering Q3 earnings:

"Looking ahead, we will take the delivery of our first Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft in the fourth quarter, beginning the rejuvenation and optimization of our narrow-body fleet. We are looking forward to the unit cost advantages this aircraft will bring to our fleet, as well as the industry-leading in-flight entertainment system and satellite WiFi that will be installed at the time of delivery. The same standard of satellite WiFi continues to be installed across our wide-body aircraft, as well as our entire Rouge fleet. The technology will be fully operational on several of these aircraft beginning near the end of the fourth quarter, with the completion of this program on our Boeing 787 and 777 fleets, as well as our Rouge Boeing 767 fleet by the end of 2018, and the completion on our Airbus A330s by March 2019."

Full transcript here: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/edite...222559623.html