VH-YIG to begin WiFI internet trials in April

[HeavyElectricity]

Just read this over on Australian Aviation:

Virgin Australia plans to commence a three-month inflight internet wifi trial on board a Boeing 737-800 from mid-April after naming Gogo and Optus as its technology partners for the service.

 

[DavidFlynn]

A bit late, mate, up hours earlier and in more detail at https://www.ausbt.com.au/virgin-australia-to-trial-free-inflight-internet-from-april

 

[HeavyElectricity]

And slower than the rest - the Virgin Australia press release:
VIRGIN AUSTRALIA PARTNERS WITH GOGO AND OPTUS SATELLITE TO INTRODUCE INFLIGHT WI-FI | Virgin Australia Newsroom

 

[Pleb Status]

With all the noise QF have been making about their WiFi system, I did not even know VA were doing anything in this space at the moment and certainly not commencing trials next month. They could even beat QF by a few days/weeks. VA need to send a few more 'fluff' pieces to the media which they will then reprint in full and call journalism.

 

[DavidFlynn]

With all the noise QF have been making about their WiFi system, I did not even know VA were doing anything in this space at the moment and certainly not commencing trials next month. They could even beat QF by a few days/weeks.

I'd doubt that. Virgin Australia won't begin the free trial until mid-April, which gives Qantas two clear weeks to address the 'stability issue' – QF has been running several test flights this past week, more slated for the weekend and I'd be quite surprised if they let go of this two-week head start. I'd suggest it's more likely that QF will flick the switch next week, or the following week at the latest, to get plenty of ink and social media on the speeds so that when Virgin Australia begins its own trials, Virgin's slower speeds will suffer by comparison – even if both prove useable for most people doing most things.

 

[HeavyElectricity]

ausbt how have a review up:

https://www.ausbt.com.au/review-virgin-australia-wifi-inflight-internet

 

[Dannyism]

I doubt this is up the alley of many on here but I'm a pretty avid gamer. The ping of ~500ms is too high for online gaming, well anything that requires reactions/co-ordination. Could be ok for turn based games I guess but ARPG/RTS/FPS/MMO are all out.


As reference, if I'm travelling to a small country town I can connect my laptop to my phone and play everything except the most latency(reaction time) dependant FPS games.

 

[Dannyism]

With all the noise QF have been making about their WiFi system, I did not even know VA were doing anything in this space at the moment and certainly not commencing trials next month. They could even beat QF by a few days/weeks. VA need to send a few more 'fluff' pieces to the media which they will then reprint in full and call journalism.

Nah, VA are a month or two behind Qantas. Qantas are rolling out, VA are still in testing.

 

[DavidFlynn]

Nah, VA are a month or two behind Qantas. Qantas are rolling out, VA are still in testing.

Nope. Qantas is also testing, in fact it's being clearly and cleverly tagged as a 'beta test'. Both airlines have three months of testing during which they'll finalise everything and then lock down the platform which is to be rolled out from Q3-ish.

 

[DavidFlynn]

I doubt this is up the alley of many on here but I'm a pretty avid gamer. The ping of ~500ms is too high for online gaming, well anything that requires reactions/co-ordination. Could be ok for turn based games I guess but ARPG/RTS/FPS/MMO are all out.

Not that anybody expects to do hard-core online gaming on inflight Internet, definitely not a satellite service where such high ping rates are unavoidable. Multiplayer MineSweeper should be do-able, however.

 

[Pleb Status]

Nah, VA are a month or two behind Qantas. Qantas are rolling out, VA are still in testing.

QF launched their single trial aircraft on 07 April. VA launched their single trial aircraft about one week later. Both are still 'testing' their systems.

I do not want to let any actual facts in the way of your story however....

 

[moa999]

I doubt this is up the alley of many on here but I'm a pretty avid gamer. The ping of ~500ms is too high for online gaming, well anything that requires reactions/co-ordination. Could be ok for turn based games I guess but ARPG/RTS/FPS/MMO are all out.

Nature of physics.
Geostationary orbit is 35000km away.

That's the best ping that people limited to NBN Satellite (with no mobile services) can get

 

[Dannyism]

Nope. Qantas is also testing, in fact it's being clearly and cleverly tagged as a 'beta test'. Both airlines have three months of testing during which they'll finalise everything and then lock down the platform which is to be rolled out from Q3-ish.

QF launched their single trial aircraft on 07 April. VA launched their single trial aircraft about one week later. Both are still 'testing' their systems.

I do not want to let any actual facts in the way of your story however....

Sure OK I was mistaken. You should've let me lube up before I got a pounding though.

 

[MarkD]

Sure OK I was mistaken. You should've let me lube up before I got a pounding though.

LOL, yeah its always better with a bit of lube haha.
OT though, flew on the bird today and the Wifi was great. Netflix worked great with no stutter or loss / buffer issues. iMessage worked fine, emails were quick and Facebook etc seamless.
Extra bonus, got 3 months credit to netflix account for free.

Don't know what price they would put on it, obviously it won't be free forever, will need to wait and see how I guess. It works really well though.

 

[madmouse58]

spotto @ mel airport

 

[AIRwin]

And its upcoming movements:
https://www.flightradar24.com/data/aircraft/vh-yig

 

[dec540]

I was lucky enough to end up on VH-YIG for a SYD-ADL leg earlier this week. The wifi worked flawlessly - I was streaming 1080p without any problems or hiccups.

Surprisingly I haven't received a survey request from VA regarding the service. I hope it's as good when it's rolled out across the fleet and awareness of the connectivity grows - I suspect there were a number of pax who weren't aware the service was available, so it left a good chunk of bandwidth for those who were aware.

 

[davidj]

1080p?? Just wait til 100+ pax start running 4k video and the usuability then. Something tells me its not designed for streaming hq video, but more for light traffic. Likely they will speed limit the service to each pax eventually. Maybe 1mbps each?

 

[dec540]

1080p?? Just wait til 100+ pax start running 4k video and the usuability then. Something tells me its not designed for streaming hq video, but more for light traffic. Likely they will speed limit the service to each pax eventually. Maybe 1mbps each?

I'd hope they have some sort of limit on a free service and a premium service with greater speed, or allocate speed to status pax etc. If it's capable of streaming it seems like a waste to limit everyone to e-mails.

 

[clipped_wings]

Husband is on Flight VA0505 as I write (SYD-OOL) He received an email 2 days ago informing him it was available and to ensure he had the latest app installed and fully charged. Not sure if it was a successful logon, he put it in flight mode before I could text him instructions. He reckoned the FA in J hadn't even suggested he try it.

I'll update his experience when he returns later this evening.