Internet Connection Speed Test in flight

Click on the arrow at the bottom left of the video box to play the video. This is an Internet speed test that measures the data rate between the PC on the plane and the Internet on the ground. Compare this with your home or office.

In fact, you can run the test yourself right now. Click on http://www.speedtest.net/ and then click on the highlighted data server. You will see your own speed and can compare with the Wi-Fi data rate on planes. This test shows a downlink from the Internet of 473 Kbps and 346 Kbps uplink to the Internet from the PC.

Data rates vary based on other users sharing the same connection. So the GoGo rate shown here is a bit lower than usual, probably due to heavey usage by others.

Slow Downloads with Wi-Fi on planes

Click on the arrow at the bottom left of the video to begin the playback. This shows the download of a poker site in flight, for those who may want to play a game on the plane as they do on the ground.

The big difference is that in the air, the data link is a slow DSL service. You can see the difference it makes in the time to download. This file is downloading at between 16 - 18 Kbps or about 1/3 the speed of a dial up modem. It will take about 12 minutes to download 9.7 MB.

Airborne Connectivity Speed Test Fails

Click the arrow at the bottom left of the video to begin the screen capture.

This is a speed test of Wi-Fi during flight, which shows a time when lots of users are all sharing the slow DSL link at the same time. The download speed is 555 Kbps or 1/2 Mbps.

But watch, the upload speed can't be measured. It fails because the signal has stopped. It must be one of the times between cell coverage areas when the signal drops and takes several minutes to reconnect.

Inflight Internet MP3 Download Part 1

Double click the image to see a larger view of the details. This is a screen capture of a MP3 download after 16 minutes of download. The song is Reminiscing by Little River Band and it began downloading from iTunes at 9:56 a.m.

The following image shows the download almost comlete - 4 minutes remaining - after 25 minutes of download time has elapsed. I would not recommend airborne Wi-Fi as a place to access the Internet for high-volume content.

Inflight Internet MP3 Download Part 2

Double click on the image to enlarge it. This is almost the end of a screen capture of a MP3 music download from iTunes while using inflight using Wi-Fi.

This download began at 9:56 a.m. (see previous image) and the time of this image is 10:21 a.m. It has been downloading for 25 minutes, and still has 4 minutes to go. Another example of Wi-Fi Light.

Inflight Internet Movie Trailer

Turn up your speaker volume and click the arrow at the bottom left of the video box. This is a video screen capture of an inflight viewing of a movie trailer using today's inflight Wi-Fi - be patient with the long buffering (download) of content.

This 48-second video capture is 41 seconds of buffering and 7 seconds of movie preview. Airborne Wi-Fi does well with thumbnail videos, like YouTube. But for the high data trailers, wait till you get back to a regular DSL connection on the ground. Todayi's Wi-Fi Light in flight just won't process this much data.

iTune Music Preview

Turn up your speaker volume and click the arrow at the bottom left of the video box. This is a video screen capture of a 30-second iTune preview in flight.

The box that pops up in the center of the screen with the green bar is when the music play pauses to buffer more content. This is necessary when you have a slow DSL speed to connect to the Internet. The constant buffereing is why it takes today's Wi-Fi 1.5 minutes to play a music preview that is just 30 seconds long.