Why not pay extra for Wi-Fi on the plane?

You bought a cheap ticket, and is it likely that you will have to pay extra for luggage? In the age of a rapidly developing sphere of services in aircrafts, there are still several things that are not worth paying for, including the provision of Internet.

Internet in the plane: does it make sense?

Despite the fact that many airports provide the opportunity to use Wi-Fi free of charge while waiting for their flight in exchange for a pop-up advertisement every 35-40 minutes, many are very much afraid of the prospect of being without a Worldwide network aboard the plane.

The development of mobile technologies has created the feeling that you are available to everyone at any time of the day, even if you are on an airplane on the way to another city. In our time, this possibility does exist. If you go on a business trip and your company pays you the opportunity to use the Internet on board, you will not be very upset, waiting for the page to load. But in the event that you spent your own money, such a service will get you out of yourself.

So, why not pay for Wi-Fi?

The existence of monopolism

There are monopoly companies that buy out all the rights to provide a certain service, which enables them to dictate the price and rules of use. The same thing happens in the air. Gogo has successfully controlled about 80% of this market since 2006. Other firms are trying to quietly create competition, but so far unsuccessfully.

Experimental evaluation system

The biggest evil from such a service is the fact that only the Internet providers themselves benefit from it. Recently, Gogo has introduced different tariffs for various users, which means that on the way from the John F. Kennedy airport to San Francisco in the business class you will pay $ 33, and, for example, the economist from Detroit in Miami - 10.

In addition, the company constantly increases this price to find out how much customers are willing to give for its services. This year, the price has risen to $ 60. And despite complaints from users, it is not necessary to expect a decline in value.

The service is still "new"

At the very beginning of its existence, a company that did not have competitors was not very interested in trying to improve the quality and speed of data transmission. Now, with the advent of competition, this has been given a little more attention. However, the speed of the Internet still leaves much to be desired: at best it is 10 megabits per second, which is half the speed of a home 4G connection. And in conventional aircraft, this indicator rarely exceeds the value of 3 megabits.

Let's remind you the principle of Wi-Fi. Speed is divided into all Internet users proportionally. Those. If at home you and your neighbors could simultaneously use three devices, and that was enough, then imagine what happens in an airplane, where about 100-150 people are on board?

Satellite technologies

The use of satellite technology makes it possible to speed up the process of data transfer, but this also means an increase in cost. Install such a system in one plane will cost about 80,000 dollars in America, and in Europe, prices can reach and 400,000. E.

In the US, satellite systems have recently acquired about 85% of aircraft, which means that soon the speed of the Internet will increase, as well as the amount to pay for providing the service.

It is unlikely that there will be free Wi-Fi

Although this news can not but grieve, let's figure it out. Now that we have found out that providing the Internet is very expensive for airlines, imagine how much the payment would increase for a ticket if they wanted to make Wi-Fi free for all users? Perhaps this will not scare you if you regularly fly on business trips sponsored by your firm, but if you are an ordinary tourist who turns up on the plane once or twice a year to fly off, it can be too expensive. With the fact that you can sit for several hours without communication, and after a book or a movie, which, by the way, is shown for free. So is the game worth the candle?

Next time, when going on a trip, think carefully about whether there is a serious need to overpay for a ticket just to keep in touch even on the plane.