Viasat is one of the most popular providers of inflight Wi-Fi, and is available on many airlines. There’s an exciting update when it comes to Viasat’s connectivity in North America, which many will no doubt appreciate…
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New ViaSat-3 F1 satellite enters service
The new ViaSat-3 F1 satellite has just entered commercial service, and is now available for aviation customers operating within North America, including routes serving Hawaii.
Without getting too technical, the biggest development here is that Viasat-equipped aircraft will finally have Wi-Fi connectivity on flights between the mainland and Hawaii. That’s a great development, given that airlines like American and Delta frequently fly planes with Viasat Wi-Fi to Hawaii, meaning that there hasn’t been inflight connectivity on those routes for most of the journey. That has finally changed.
This development follows a period of testing that took place over the first half of 2024.
Here’s how Jimmy Dodd, President of the Aviation segment at Viasat, describes this latest development:
“This is exciting news for our aviation customers and the millions of passengers who use inflight Wi-Fi services powered by the Viasat network. Bringing ViaSat-3 F1 into commercial service for aviation customers will significantly enhance the passenger experience available over North America, including streaming content and staying in touch with the world when flying.”
This new satellite had an extensive delay
It’s nice to see this new satellite entering commercial service, since it wasn’t exactly a seamless process. In mid-2023, Viasat revealed that there was an antenna deployment anomaly following the launch of this new satellite, bringing into question its long term viability.
However, extensive in-orbit testing demonstrated that all other systems on the satellite were operating at or beyond expectations. While the antenna deployment anomaly resulted in a significant reduction in overall capacity, the high-performance specifications of the ViaSat-3 satellite system still allows the satellite to support high speed broadband services for aviation customers over North America.
Here’s how Craig Miller, President of Global Space Networks at Viasat, describes this progress:
“Today’s announcement is also a significant technical achievement for Viasat and signals the start of revenue generating services from the first of our three ground-breaking ViaSat-3 satellites. A further two ViaSat-3 satellites are currently in the late stages of production and testing, including the successful completion of thermal vacuum testing on ViaSat-3 F3 recently and the successful completion of mechanical environmental testing on ViaSat-3 F2.”
Bottom line
The new ViaSat-3 F1 satellite has just entered commercial service, and that means that aircraft with Viasat Wi-Fi will finally have connectivity to and from Hawaii. This is an awesome development, even if the delpoyment of the new ViaSat-3 satellites hasn’t gone as smoothly as planned.
What do you make of the ViaSat-3 F1 satellite finally entering commercial service?
Flew Hawaiian yesterday, their Starlink Wi-Fi is outstanding. Curious to see how this matches up. It was true gate-to-gate, unlimited high-speed connectivity.
This was long overdue.
As is Viasat over much of the Pacific.
Will be interesting to see how much of the Pacific is covered with this.
I believe that most or all of the UA Max 737's also have Viasat, and while I personally avoid that aircraft to Hawaii, if you are going to any HI airport other then HNL, it can be difficult to stay off of them...