Qantas starts international wifi

[moa999]

but the engineer told her he didn’t think it would.

So there was an engineer on the flight? Presumably not just for the wifi?

 

[justinbrett]

So there was an engineer on the flight? Presumably not just for the wifi?

We had an unrelated maintenance issue and he was on board when she made the WiFi announcement just before we pushed back.

 

[BrianQQ]

Thank you!!

Not a good sign rn haha
View attachment 468588
Maybe when we take off?

Can confirm did not work.

 

[exLXCXFF]

I was on QF35 MEL - SIN yesterday, operated by VH-EBJ and received this while in the Melbourne dungeon. It then indeed materialised during the flight.

 

[justinbrett]

Can confirm did not work.

Exactly what I had on SYD-HND

Reading between the lines I think it’s hard-blocked because of the route.

 

[elanshin]

Exactly what I had on SYD-HND

Reading between the lines I think it’s hard-blocked because of the route.

Yeh given that I was on the same plane but JP route and it was off but HK and it was on. I'm pretty sure it's now route based (assuming its capable).

 

[Beano]

Domestic Wi-Fi can be just as bad. Several DOM flights last week had intermittent Wi-Fi, and all across land. I had to keep reconnecting!

 

[Flyfrequently]

VH-EBC QF 44 had wifi from somewhere over WA in the very early hours today.

 

[NZflygirl]

I'm onboard QF157 and the speeds after we left Australia are excellent.

Speedtest settled at this but it did peak at 110mbps down.

View attachment 463396

FYI this is the exact spot we lost the NBN sats and the drop was around 3-4 minutes, the announcement before takeoff did mention a drop leaving AU airspace.

View attachment 463398

One interesting thing for the tech nerds amongst us is that whilst the speed is much faster outside Australia the latency back to Sydney Azure is noticeably poorer both in tests and day to day use of a virtual machine. Regardless it still works and is excellent! Air NZ used to be a sure bet with their A320/321neos always having wifi but QF on the 737s with business class, a power socket and even faster wifi now takes cake!

I've been wondering, is it only fast because it's fairly new and I suspect not many people use it? Definitely some people out cold on my flight. I flew QF157 as well and clocked 176 down and 12 up. You never get these speeds on Air NZ despite QF probably using the same satellites Air NZ does.



Unfortunately I didn't take a screenshot on my phone of where we were. I know we were in the first half of the flight though. We had the domestic config. No seatback screen and I had a newish device and hadn't downloaded the Qantas entertainment app. I couldn't download inflight from the store either. I think that's blocked? There's something else I think that's blocked but I can't remember what it is. You tube streaming worked really well.

 

[Beano]

I've been wondering, is it only fast because it's fairly new and I suspect not many people use it? Definitely some people out cold on my flight. I flew QF157 as well and clocked 176 down and 12 up. You never get these speeds on Air NZ despite QF probably using the same satellites Air NZ does.

View attachment 468897

Unfortunately I didn't take a screenshot on my phone of where we were. I know we were in the first half of the flight though. We had the domestic config. No seatback screen and I had a newish device and hadn't downloaded the Qantas entertainment app. I couldn't download inflight from the store either. I think that's blocked? There's something else I think that's blocked but I can't remember what it is. You tube streaming worked really well.

i recall on one flight the crew saying you could download the app using the airplane Wi-Fi.

 

[NZflygirl]

i recall on one flight the crew saying you could download the app using the airplane Wi-Fi.

I clicked inflight wifi to browse and probably wasn't thinking that I should have clicked on entertainment instead. Have downloaded it now anyway. I think there's a wifi address you can type in as well to watch IFE but I forgot about that solution. Anyway those were impressive speeds.

 

[Beano]

I clicked inflight wifi to browse and probably wasn't thinking that I should have clicked on entertainment instead. Have downloaded it now anyway. I think there's a wifi address you can type in as well to watch IFE but I forgot about that solution. Anyway those were impressive speeds.

I have found the IFE through the app more reliable than the Wi-fi.

 

[moa999]

We had the domestic config. No seatback screen

Think that distinction is now gone.
BYO IFE is the new Qantas standard for short-medium routes. The initial 321XLRs will be delivered without seatback IFE, and it will be gradually removed from the newer 737s as they are refurbed from late 2026..

 

[henrus]

I've been wondering, is it only fast because it's fairly new and I suspect not many people use it? Definitely some people out cold on my flight. I flew QF157 as well and clocked 176 down and 12 up. You never get these speeds on Air NZ despite QF probably using the same satellites Air NZ does.

More bandwidth on new sats plus no shaping currently. This may change but on the NBN sats Qantas is bandwidth limited whereas the new ones less so. Air NZ seem to have a similar thing only provisioning so much bandwidth to each aircraft probably due to cost.