Qantas delays aircraft wi-fi launch

Qantas is working to address bugs in its new onboard fast  wi-fi system after problems forced an 11th-hour delay of its public introduction.

The airline had planned to launch its satellite-based wi-fi with a  media flight on a specially-equipped Boeing 737-800 due to take place Monday.

But it cancelled both the flight and the launch after running into problems that have taken longer than expected to troubleshoot.

Officials were unable to say when the new system would now be available to passengers but said it was working to fix the problems “very soon”.

“We’ve been testing in-flight Wi-Fi for several weeks and the performance has been strong,’’ the airline said in a statement.

 “We were preparing to open it up to media and customers this week as we continue our fine-tuning over the next few months, but some stability issues have emerged that we need to fix before customers can use it.

“We’re working with nbn and ViaSat to fix these issues very soon. We remain on-track for a broader roll-out to the Qantas Domestic fleet from mid-2017.”

Qantas is using the faster Ka-band technology, rather the Ku-band system that passengers have found frustrating on some airlines, accessed through the nbn’s Sky Muster satellites.

 Real-world tests on the airline’s system had produced download speeds for individual passengers of between 7 megabits-per-second  (Mbps) and 12 Mbps.  A smart TV running at 3-4 Mbps comfortably displays streaming service Netflix in high definition without buffering.

The airline had already signed up Netflix, Foxtel and music service Spotify as partners and announced recently that local service Stan would join the fold with an offer of a 90-day subscription that will be included in a  fare.

The partner content was not due to be available until mid-April.