The number of wi-fi enable aircraft flying around Australia doubled Thursday with the announcement Virgin Australia has begun a three-month test.
The airline has joined Qantas by equipping one of its Boeing 737-800 aircraft with wi-fi capable of delivering streaming services such as Netflix, Stan and Pandora to passenger’s devices.
Both carriers are offering the service free, although Virgin says it has yet to finalise its business model and there is speculation it may ultimately charge for the privilege.
Both are keen to test the reliability of their systems before rolling them out across their fleets.
Virgin’s system will be integrated with its wireless entertainment system and will offer the full catalogue of movies and TV shows from Netflix and Stan as well as music from Pandora Plus.
The airline will offer passengers who travel on its test plane three months’ free access to Netflix and Pandora Plus, including those with existing accounts. New subscribers to Stan will also get complimentary access for three months.
“We’re looking forward to receiving guest feedback about our inflight connectivity over the next three months to ensure we are able to offer the best possible service in the sky,” Virgin group executive john Thomas said.
Virgin has opted for the in-flight connectivity specialist Gogo’s 2Ku technology connected through five Optus geostationary satellites, while Qantas has opted for the high-capacity Ka system offered by ViaSat through nbn’s Sky Muster satellite.
This battle is already underway in the US where Gogo, used by Virgin partner Delta Air Lines, is the market leader and ViaSat the up and coming challenger.
Ku and Ka refer to wavelength classifications for the signals the technologies are using to communicate with the satellites. Ku uses longer wavelengths and a lower frequency and is an older technology.
Ku satellites historically have not had the bandwidth capacity of their Ka counterparts and the earlier Ku wi-fi system was relatively slow.
However, Gogo boosted speeds by introducing a dual antenna — one for upload and one for download — with 2Ku and earlier this year claimed peak speeds of up to 100 megabits per second.
Virgin also announced Thursday it would launch twice-weekly services between Perth and Canberra during Parliamentary sitting weeks in August and September. The services on Thursdays and Sundays will be operated by Boeing 737s.
