Flying on planes usually means that chances of you going online will be pretty slim, unless you have no qualms of paying for exorbitant in-flight WiFi services. Even then, these services tend to be slow and sketchy at best, but if you are from Europe or will be flying from Europe, all of that could soon change.
This is thanks to a new joint-venture between Inmarsat and Deutsche Telekom. Both companies have recently announced a partnership which will see the launch of the European Aviation Network. This new service will combine LTE and satellite networks in order to deliver high-speed internet across Europe, thanks to the multi-beam satellites that can cover all the EU member countries.
Unfortunately if you were hoping to experience this new fast in-flight WiFi service soon, you’d be out of luck. Lufthansa is expected to be the first European airline to trial the new European Aviation Network in 2017, meaning that we still have about 2 years before that happens, so until then we guess travellers will just have to rely on what’s currently available.
No word on how much this service could potentially cost customers, but given the current pricing for in-flight WiFi services, it’s unlikely this new service will be cheaper. In fact we expect it should be more expensive, but either way we will have to wait and see.
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