Skift Take
As Forrest Gump would say, “You never know what you’re going to get.” The good news is that, with competition in this race hot enough for candy, the chocolate assortment is going to get pretty tasty quick.
If you're looking for great Wi-Fi in the air, you're not alone.
So are the 97% of passengers traveling who are permanently attached to their fancy gadgets. After all, what good is the latest state-of-the-art communication technology if you can't communicate?
There's the rub.
Wi-Fi is that sweet treat all passengers would like to find at 30,000 feet, but getting Wi-Fi onboard is more a treasure hunt than a treasure.
A number of suppliers offer various forms of connectivity, and competition is fierce. That fierce competition drives dramatic improvements.
For now, speed is limited and watered-down by variable demand. If a plane full of gadgeteers connect at the same time, usage slows down to the speed of sap.
Each service provider (and each airline offering that service provider's product) will tell you they have the best speeds, really great speeds, reasonably good speeds, or all the speed you need. But what speed do passengers need?
Airline passenger data use breaks down into three primary objectives: 1) productivity, 2) entertainment, and 3) gaining short-lived internet stardom by posting awkward cabin emergency selfies and tweeting incidents of unruly passenger behavior live in-flight.
Passengers in the third category are fortunate. Opportunities for cabin emergency selfies are rare. The chances of being on a Wi-Fi connected aircraft when something goes wrong are slim enough to give actuaries migraines. As more aircraft equip, the opportunities to
