Every JetBlue Flight Now Has Free Wi-Fi That Blows Gogo Out of the Water

Photo credit: Getty Images
Photo credit: Getty Images

From Popular Mechanics

Having internet in the sky is a minor miracle. On the other hand, it is often unusable garbage. But things are looking up, and JetBlue's universal, speedy, gate-to-gate Wi-Fi is an example of how things are getting better. It's now available on every JetBlue flight, for free.

Your go-to touchstone for what in-flight Wi-Fi is like might be the notoriously awful Gogo, which actually faced a lawsuit from American Airlines due to poor performance that the airline claimed did not live up to the standards of their agreement. Fortunately, JetBlue's "Fly-Fi" as it is called, is satellite-based internet, a different breed from plans that are still using Gogo's older air-to-ground tech. This new satellite tech can enable speeds of up to 20 Mbps per device-more speed than you might have coming to your house down on the ground.

JetBlue didn't cook up Fly-Fi all on its own. It's the project of a partnership with ViaSat, the satellite internet company that, for the time being, is Gogo's biggest competitor. The same company that recently made a contract with American Airlines, which will further increase the competition for faster in-sky internet, which will benefit us all in the long run. Gogo's working on a speedier satellite solution as well, but the progress has been slow. With competition like this though, maybe it will speed up and things will get better for all of us.

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Source: JetBlue via Engadget

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