I hate paying for in-flight Wi-Fi. I use its terrible quality and high price as excuses to disconnect from the world and take a nap. But Gogo is about to ruin my life with its upgraded Wi-Fi, rolling out to airlines later this year.
I tested Gogo’s next-gen 2Ku internet system in its Airborne Test Lab, a Boeing 737-500 that flew a couple dozen journalists around Newark Liberty International Airport Tuesday afternoon. The lab environment combined Gogo’s upgraded modem with capacity from Intelsat’s high-throughput satellites, which aim to deliver up to 100 Mbps per airplane. On a mostly empty plane cruising at 30,000 feet, I was getting anywhere from 20-50 Mbps download speeds on every device I brought with me: a MacBook Air, 12.9-inch iPad Pro, and iPhone 7 Plus. This will likely never happen to me again—both sitting in a seat with extra legroom on a Boeing 737 and the ultra-fast download speeds—and it was glorious.
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