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In recent years, most U.S. airlines have offered Wi-Fi on most of their flights. But in general, the service has been very expensive -- and not very fast.
Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL) wants to change that. Over the next two weeks, the airline giant will test free, fast Wi-Fi on about 55 domestic flights per day. (For comparison, it normally charges $16 for a day pass within North America.) Eventually, Delta hopes to roll out free Wi-Fi across its entire route network. But in doing so, it would at best match a service that rival JetBlue Airways (NASDAQ: JBLU) has been offering for years.
Delta began testing free Wi-Fi on certain flights this week. Image source: Delta Air Lines.
The pioneer in free Wi-Fi
JetBlue was relatively late to the inflight Wi-Fi game, rolling out its first broadband-equipped aircraft in late 2013. It waited that long because it wanted to ensure a great experience for customers. Rather than using the air-to-ground systems that were common in the U.S. at the time, JetBlue jumped straight to satellite-based Wi-Fi from Viasat (NASDAQ: VSAT), which offers significantly more bandwidth at a low cost.
By January 2017, JetBlue's entire fleet was equipped with the carrier's Fly-Fi service. Whereas other carriers charged a lot for Wi-Fi service to discourage use -- due to the modest amount of bandwidth available -- JetBlue was able to offer free Wi-Fi for everyone on flights within the continental U.S.
JetBlue and Viasat regularly boast that Fly-Fi provides internet speeds relatively comparable to what you would experience at home. Fly-Fi is even suitable for streaming video.
Delta is playing catch-up
The main drawback of Viasat's service is that until recently, the coverage barely extended beyond the continental U.S. With new satellites, Viasat expanded its range last year to include most of Central America and the Caribbean, as well as trans-Atlantic air corridors and -- through a joint venture -- Europe. A trio of next-generation satellites scheduled to launch in 2021 and 2022 will give Viasat near-global coverage.
JetBlue offers free Wi-Fi on all of its aircraft. Image source: JetBlue Airways.
By contrast, Gogo (NASDAQ: GOGO) already offers near-global Wi-Fi coverage, which has helped it win the business of Delta and many other carriers. Delta is in the midst of upgrading its fleet to Gogo's 2Ku satellite Wi-Fi, which can offer up to 400 megabits per second of bandwidth on each aircraft.
Some of these Gogo 2Ku-equipped planes will be used for the free Wi-Fi test over the next few weeks. Unlike JetBlue, Delta will not permit streaming applications on its test aircraft, but customers will have access to the rest of the web. The test program "is designed to understand customer experience preferences, system performance, customer feedback, and more," according to the company.