If you are good at history, you will probably remember that during the month of February American Airlines sued the in-flight internet provider Gogo and the dispute revolved around a clause in the contract between the two that allowed the airline to terminate or renegotiate if they found a provider that offered better service. However, before American Airlines decided that they were going to replace Gogo with something better, they offered the service provider to show that it was able to deliver something better. The new 2Ku service of Gogo uses satellites to provide internet, rather than land-based towers and such a service promises 70Mbps of bandwidth to be shared by the entire plane. While that does sound good, the airline found something better because the internet connection is not going to be shared by the passengers, but will receive their own dedicated speeds. According to a press release from ViaSat, the in-flight ISP has landed a contract with American Airlines to provide internet services to their upcoming fleet of Boeing 737 MAX aircraft and the stated information suggests that the company is offering 12Mbps speeds to every single seat on the aircraft, thus making it way superior to the 70Mbps service that was being offered by Gogo’s 2Ku service. In-flight internet connections are extremely pricey, so if ViaSat is able to keep a lid on those price tags, then we are going to have a satisfied army of customers, as well as a healthy partnership between the service provider and American Airlines. Slashgear
