Gogo Has More In-Flight Internet Bandwidth Than It Knows What to Do With (Sometimes)
Photo Credit: Delta is an early adopter of Gogo's 2KU technology. Delta Air Lines
Skift Take
At least on some planes, Gogo finally has enough bandwidth to satisfy every passenger. That's good news, but it will take some time before passengers can count on reliably fast Wi-Fi on every flight.
"Bandwidth abundance." Those are two words many North American airline passengers have been waiting to hear for years.
On Monday, executives at Gogo, the in-flight connectivity company, said they were sending more bandwidth to some aircraft than passengers can consume. For now, that's good news for flyers on two North American airlines — Aeromexico and Delta Air Lines — both early-adopters of Gogo's new satellite Wi-Fi called 2KU. Brazil's Gol Airlines is also a current customer, and eventually, American Airlines will install 2KU on some aircraft, as will several other global airlines.
For 2KU, early returns are promising, CEO Michael Small said on Gogo's fourth quarter earnings call. Last year, 2KU delivered peak speeds of 20 megabits per second to aircraft, Gogo said, but this year, with technological improvements, that number should jump to 100. It's a big increase from Gogo's air-to-ground syste
