It seems almost a done deal that India will permit wifi-based internet access in Indian airspace, while the civil aviation ministry is still taking a while to announce it. While Air India briefly talked to vendors a few years ago about having wifi on Indian airplanes, that did not go anywhere. Vistara installed wifi-based content streaming service on one of their aircraft last year, and are still in testing. Here is our review of their wifi-based IFE.
Jet Airways launched their wifi-based content streaming service earlier this year, and this is scaling up quickly. While I haven’t tried out the new JetScreen yet, my wife has, and she said it was a great product with tonnes of content to boot.
Now, Jet seems to be taking the lead in wifi implementation as well. Yesterday, Jet Airways launched a survey, trying to gauge from their patrons about how much looks like good coverage, and where does it stand amongst the priority order of the travellers. Also, talks about how to price the product.
If you are keen to be productive on your next flights, maybe it is a good idea to give them the feedback they seek, here.
Bottomline
It seems at least one Indian carrier will have wifi on their planes sooner than later, and then of course, the others will follow. I’d just wish that there be some Gogo like service provider, who sold access on the entire network, and then you would have wifi across airlines. I’m also keen to see when will Indigo get in this mode, as it would be one more opportunity for them to monetize their customers.
Would you want Internet connectivity on your domestic flights in India? I’m looking forward to hear.
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Do we get JP Miles to fill the survey?
@neil no
I do not see people jumping on the wagon & here is why. My guess is that ~70% domestic flights will have flight duration <= 1.30 hour & think it is too short a time. Moreover generally wifi is not made available below 10000ft that takes away ~15-20 mins total on take off & landing leaving a mere an hour of effective usage. Combine that with ridiculous pricing (to cover capex & opex costs) generally prevalent.
There will definitely be once who would like to try it once, but more than that I do not foresee wider acceptance.