To answer this comment, from someone in the satellite biz...
"Why would Southwest be going with a Satellite system that must weigh a ton when AA is using a land based lighter weight terrestrial wi-fi product. You don't fly overwater so I don't know why you need to go the satellite route, seems like overkill to me!"
Without getting into a deep technical discussion, the land-based solution you mention is about as "fast" as it ever will be. They bid on a specific small piece of bandwidth. The increasing use of video, combined with the "hip" generation becoming a larger proportion of SWA customers, will ultimately overwhelm it. Also, it gets slower as more aircraft adopt it. More transmitters == more noise in a ground based system. More noise == slower internet.
The satellite based solution is much, much faster right out of the gate, and can be upgraded to keep up ( like moving to Ka-band ) with the times. And, adding planes to the system doesn't slow anything down.
From my perspective, Southwest picked the marathon runner over the sprinter. Wait three or four years, and watch what happens.
... View more
