
Gogo’s Boeing 737 flight lab named Jimmy Ray (Photo: Ian Livingston)
Tuesday afternoon, at Newark Liberty International Airport, I boarded a plane, took off, watched Planet Earth live on Netflix for 90 minutes. I then landed at Newark Liberty International Airport—a few hundred feet from where I’d taken off.
I ended the day where I started it, and that was the point. So was the Netflix. On this day, Gogo, the world’s leading provider of in-flight wi-fi, was sampling what is says is its newest, fastest, most reliable wi-fi product yet for aviation and travel journalists. Aboard Gogo’s white-and-sky-blue 737—the Jimmy Ray “flight lab,” named for Gogo’s founder—I joined about 20 others in testing “the next generation of 2Ku” Wi-Fi.
NYC-based travel writer Ian Livingston penned this post about his EWR-EWR roundtrip
Takeaway: Gogo’s in-flight Wi-Fi, powered by new modems and Intelsat IS32E satellites, is about to get much, much better.
Gogo says that right now only one Aeromexico jet is flying with the newest next-gen 2Ku system that we sampled. However, the company has aggressive plans for installation and says that 1,600 planes will have it by the end of 2018. Currently, about 170 planes worldwide are flying with its first generation 2Ku system—and 100 of those are Delta’s. Planes that are already equipped with first-gen 2Ku will, at the end of this cycle, be retrofitted with the new modems to bring their wi-fi up to what will soon be the new standard.
On Tuesday’s flight, my “gogoinflight” signal floated between 35Mbs and 64Mbs—stronger than what I’m writing with at home (37Mbs). And that was gate to gate, through takeoff and landing, nearly without interruption. For reference, you need about 4Mbs to watch Netflix programming. For general browsing and email, which require only periodic requests to servers, you need much less than that. I streamed Planet Earth episodes and VICE YouTube videos at the same time, while using email, with no discernible issue.
According to Gogo, the Wi-Fi at 30,000 feet on this day peaked at a blistering 93Mbs, though I did not measure that myself. Uploads peaked at just 8Mbs, but for me averaged around 4Mbs. All this, despite 20-some journalists on 53 devices trying their hardest to consume bandwidth.

(Photo: Ian Livingston)
That said, my VPN (iVPN) brought my internet bacchanal to a temporary halt. I was told by CTO Anand Chari that initially the new 2Ku technology is not yet optimized for all VPNs (which carry server requests indirectly, via multiple stops) for reasons related to latency. My attempts to FaceTime were also largely unsuccessful, though a few flying beside me managed better. Ed Baig of USA Today even Facebook Live’d for a while.
American Airlines, which not long ago nearly took Gogo to court, has signed on for 2Ku installation on 140 planes. Among the other airlines that will soon offer up to 100Mbs wi-fi in the air are Aer Lingus, Air France, Air Canada, British Airways, GOL, Iberia, Japan Transoceanic Air, KLM, Virgin Atlantic, and Virgin Australia.
Pricing for now will remain the same, though Gogo expects to reevaluate as passengers familiarize themselves with the new tech. As I understand it, Gogo’s current price structure is designed to limit the number of passengers consuming bandwidth (cheap/free access would mean more people clogging it up). With much more bandwidth soon available, and passenger expectations of Gogo set to change, it remains possible that more passengers will price into Gogo’s user base.
Until then, know what airplane you’re flying on. Your Gogo dollars may already take you further than they used to.
ICYMI, see the 25 most recent TravelSkills posts right here
In the market for a new credit card? See our “Credit Card Deals” tab to shop around! It helps us help you.
Don’t miss out! Join the 185,000+ people who read TravelSkills every month! Sign up here for one email-per-day updates!