Icelandair First to Offer Speedy New Transatlantic Wi-Fi
Icelandair announced today that it will be the first airline to provide high-speed internet on transatlantic flights when it installs the new service on board 16 of its upcoming Boeing 737 MAX aircraft. The service will be provided by ViaSat, which already provides in-flight Wi-Fi to several other carriers. The ViaSat-2 satellite is set to launch on June 1, 2017, and installation of the upgraded internet systems on Icelandair planes will begin in 2018 and will continue through 2020.
The provider's new satellite has the capability of offering internet speeds at significantly faster rates than previous iterations. According to ViaSat's site, "ViaSat-2 is designed to double the bandwidth economics advantage of ViaSat-1, double the throughput, and provide seven times the coverage." For now, the faster Wi-Fi will only be available on Icelandair flights that fly over North America and the Atlantic Ocean. If you're continuing onward from Reykjavik (KEF), you'll be connected to a slower European KA-SAT network.
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