Emirates Onboard Wireless internet - How good is it ?
 

Functional enough to do some emails and standard surfing ?

No downloading of course

The pay an extra dollar for 600 meg, can you keep paying extra dollars for more quota ?

I think its fairly adequate for social media (snapchat, whatsapp, Facebook) and emails.
Youtube worked a bit for me for a short while only.

Also the internet service is not available when flying over certain locations such as China & India I think.

I think the $1 USD payment is reasonable if you really need to text during your flight.
Yes you can keep paying extra dollars.

It depends on the route - if you're flying a polar route where there is little satellite coverage, your bandwidth will be more limited. If you're flying around Europe or Oceania, speeds are better as there is more coverage.

You can tell how many people are using the system at the same time, but I haven't ever seen it go above 50 at one time - chat apps and light browsing is perfectly acceptable.

You can pay extra dollars for more quota - on the older systems there's an excess charge of 0 USD/MB ;)

I;ll just be using facebook, whatsapp mainly

thanks guys

My last BHX to DXB I was whats-apping several people and updating Facebook as I went along on my merry way.

Dropped out a couple of times but I never went over the free allowance all was good.

Sent loads of pictures via whatsapp too.

How can you tell how many people are on at any given time?

If it's the OnAir newer style portal, on the main page there will be a little signal indicator next to your profile login on the top right - click on that and it will show connected users.

Heres a tip to get the most out of it.

1. Update your phone using the airport wifi before you board so you don't use up all the free data you get onboard.
2. During the flight when they announce that you can now connect to onair services, don't connect the data for a few hours as everyone else will be doing the same thing and slowing it down.

Edit: and for heavens sake make sure your mobile data services are turned off

Sounds like your wallet's cry of pain. Welcome to the club ! ;)

Here's a jaded traveller tip - go to a country with cheap international data roaming, get a local SIM on a pre-paid tariff - but one you can pay easily online - and a cheap older smartphone, then use that as a roaming hotspot on your travels :D

Never seen such a thing, cheap data roaming?? The holy grail.

Could you offer any suggestions as I'd be very interested.

Well, cheap is relative, but something like 5-10 USD a day for unlimited data is acceptable to me. Take a look at say, Singtel's roaming plans, or something in SE Asia like Thailand. They are generally pretty cheap and easy to get, easy to load a balance.

The Bridge Alliance members all seem to have similar international data roaming rates.

'Cheap' in data roaming terms is anything that's cheaper than a small family hatchback :p

Don't think I'm due to go far east in the next few months but when I do I'll check them out. Thanks for the heads up.

Once it works its generally pretty great. It is intermittent at times (which may be due to flying over no wifi zones).

I have called and video called (via facebook messenger) with no issues. It is rather cool to have a call in the middle of the Indian ocean while at a bar..!

I have not had any issues and find it adequate for light browsing and social media. And the allowance for USD 1 is very reasonable indeed.