Wifi coming to flights over the North Pole
Jul 10, 2019, 10:01 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Mar 2011
Posts: 723
Wifi coming to flights over the North Pole
Emirates has announced plans to extend its wifi connectivity, mobile phone reception and Live TV access to include areas over the North Pole and Arctic Circle.
The carrier said that on flights to the US customers can find themselves without connectivity for up to four hours, due to “the fact that most satellites that connect aircraft are geostationary, located over the equator, and aircraft antennae cannot see the satellite when in the far north, due to the earth’s curvature”.
This issue is now set to be solved, with the addition of two elliptical orbit satellites in partnership with Inmarsat.
The improved service is set to come online by 2022. Wifi connectivity is available on all Emirates aircraft, with all passengers receiving 20MB of free data, or unlimited use of messaging apps for two hours.
The carrier said that on flights to the US customers can find themselves without connectivity for up to four hours, due to “the fact that most satellites that connect aircraft are geostationary, located over the equator, and aircraft antennae cannot see the satellite when in the far north, due to the earth’s curvature”.
This issue is now set to be solved, with the addition of two elliptical orbit satellites in partnership with Inmarsat.
The improved service is set to come online by 2022. Wifi connectivity is available on all Emirates aircraft, with all passengers receiving 20MB of free data, or unlimited use of messaging apps for two hours.
Great news for those of us who are frequent on the US West Coast flights, although sadly we'll have to wait until 2022!
Jul 15, 2019, 1:11 am
#3
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: United Kingdom
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Posts: 2,531
LOL. I discovered a few years ago that I can track the location of the aircraft I am on in Google maps even without any data connectivity. ( better if near a window though )