Fast connection - Curt Lewis

70Mbps Gogo in-flight internet approved by FAA

You may remember that Gogo shared some good news in April last year: its in-flight internet service was set to be upgraded from 9.8Mbps to 70Mbps. That's all thanks to a much improved satellite antenna fitted in planes called 2Ku.

The upgraded system was meant to be streaming content on planes by now, but the FAA has only this week issued the final Supplemental Type Certificate (STC) required to use it. So, 70Mbps internet is coming to Gogo flights, it's just going to take a bit longer than we (and Gogo) originally thought.

Gogo already has 7 commercial airlines signed up for the improved service, which translates into over 500 aircraft waiting for those antenna upgrades. The plan now is to start installing the new antennas later this year and then switching on 2Ku access from early 2016.

As well as a huge increase in speed, 2Ku is future-proofed to work with new spot beam satellites, which will see the connection speed increase again from 70Mbps to 100Mbps. With that connection being shared across an entire aircraft full of people, even small bumps in speed will help, especially if Netflix is allowed.

The image above shows you what the two low-profile, high-efficiency Ku-band satellite antennas look like. They are twice as spectrally efficient and designed in such a way as to not impact the overall drag of an aircraft in flight. Gogo says a flight anywhere in the world will be able to use the improved Gogo internet such is the coverage offered by Ku satellites. So now it's just a case of waiting to see if your flight gets it next year.