By teaming up with satellite and telecommunications provider ViaSat, JetBlue says it can change the in-flight internet experience similar to how altered in-flight television.

JetBlue and ViaStat recently announced the deal which will put Wi-Fi on a fleet of more than 160 aircraft using ViaSat advanced Ka-band satellite. ViaSat will provide Ka-band antenna components and SurfBeam modems for installation on JetBlue aircrafts along with two-way transmission bandwidth services.

Live TV, the JetBlue subsidiary responsible for the company's satellite TV offering, will oversee the integration of the ViaSat broadband and provide Wi-Fi enabled services into the cabin. The end result will be satellite enabled Wi-Fi internet service.

While many of its competing airlines already offer in-flight Wi-Fi, JetBlue said it wanted to make sure the experience was more than adequate. Bryan Baldwin, spokesperson for JetBlue, says ViaSat's flexible satellite technology is unforeseen on the commercial market.

"This will be true broadband bandwidth with the speed and capacity that is currently not there in the aviation marketplace," Baldwin said. "The service isn't good enough with an air to ground system, which is why we chose to work with ViaSat and do the satellite option."

Many of JetBlue's competitors, such as AirTran, American Airlines and Delta, use the in-flight internet provider GoGo, which is supported by aviation telecom provider Aircell. However, Baldwin said, GoGo's ground-based (cell tower) connectivity system, "Has insufficient capacity to support the experience we are seeking to offer our passengers."

Other satellite offerings, such as Row44 and Inmarsat, didn't have enough capacity to meet the company's needs. Meanwhile, it thinks ViaSat will be able to fully replicate a user's ground based online experience in the air.

"There will be no limits, like if everyone is using it at the same time, there will be no slowdowns," Baldwin said. "It will work at great speeds at full connectivity and with lots of bandwidth for plenty of users."

Prior to this project, ViaSat only worked on military based flights. The company has created satellite networks, terminals and processors for wireless military communications. It said JetBlue was the ideal candidate to partner with in the commercial industry due to its history with entertainment on board a plane. One of the reasons JetBlue became a household name was because of its in-flight satellite TV offerings, which offers an array of Direct TV channels for each passenger. Prior to this, most airlines offered only a few TVs for the whole plane that showed predetermined movies and TV shows.

"JetBlue is famous for customer service and in-flight entertainment. The breakthrough bandwidth economics of ViaSat-1 extends the passenger internet experience beyond just e-mail and web pages and creates a world of possibilities for personalized broadband entertainment. This is exactly the type of application and user experience that we believe will help transform the satellite broadband industry," Mark Dankberg, ViaSat chief executive officer and chairman, said in a statement.

JetBlue said first installations will occur by 2012.

In an emailed response, Fran Phillips Aircell senior vice president of airline services, said, "Aircell's Air-to-Ground (ATG) network offers the only cost-effective service today, and into the forseeable future, as evidenced by the fact that our customers love Gogo, and that we were the number one choice of 9 demanding airlines. Our high performing network also happens to be easily scaleable as bandwidth needs increase. Ka satellite service certainly holds promise, and if the expectations around this technology do get met in the coming years, we are in the unique position to leverage it. With more than 20 years of satellite experience in our business aviation group and a huge base of more than 1000 aircraft, we certainly intend to maintain our market leadership position both in terms of technological performance and customer satisfaction."Satellite Internet Servicesource: africa.ibtimes.com/articles