Qantas in-flight Wi-Fi fails to take off
Qantas was forced to abandon the official launch of its in-flight wi-fi after tests revealed ‘stability issues’.
Qantas was forced to abandon the official launch of its in-flight Wi-Fi yesterday after last-minute tests revealed unresolved “stability issues”.
The airline had arranged for the media to fly with chief executive Alan Joyce on a two-hour test flight, but had to cancel the flight at the 11th hour.
CSIRO scientist Terry Percival, who is credited with the co-invention of Wi-Fi, was to have joined Mr Joyce on the flight.
Qantas has been developing its Wi-Fi system with US technology firm ViaSat, while it also relies on the National Broadband Network.
The company is still hopeful it will be able to offer free Wi-Fi on all of its flights by mid-year.
“We’ve been testing in-flight Wi-Fi for several weeks and the performance has been strong. We were preparing to open it up to media and customers this week as we continue our finetuning over the next few months, but some stability issues have emerged that we need to fix before customers can use it,” Qantas said in a statement.
“We’re working with NBN and ViaSat to fix these issues very soon. We remain on track for a broader rollout to the Qantas domestic fleet from mid-2017.”
The naming of NBN in the statement prompted the provider to respond with its own clarification. It said the problems with the in-flight Wi-Fi “did not involve the NBN Sky Muster satellite connection”.
Virgin Australia already offers in-flight entertainment via a Wi-Fi app on selected Boeing 737-800 and Embraer 190 aircraft, but this system, which requires passengers to use their own devices, is limited to entertainment and does not allow for email or internet access.
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