European airline Virgin Atlantic has entered a partnership deal with Gogo Inc. to include high-speed Internet service on all of its flights, according to PC Mag.
Although the partnership was announced on Wednesday, the two companies are still ironing out the details of the deal.
For Virgin flights, Gogo will use its latest 2Ku satellite-based system, Market Watch reported. This can provide in-flight Internet connectivity speeds of up to 70Mbp, according to the company's CTO Anand Chari.
"We anticipate that this technology will deliver peak speeds of 70Mbps to the plane when initially launched and more than 100Mbps when new spot beam satellite technologies become available," Chari explained.
For Virgin, partnering with Gogo is the airline company's way of improving its services to its passengers.
"We're always looking at ways to enhance the on-board experience for our customers and expanding in-flight connectivity across our fleet is just one of the ways in which we are doing this," Reuben Arnold, Virgin Atlantic's brand and customer engagement director said.
"We were impressed with Gogo's connectivity solution and look forward to all of our customers being able to enjoy this service whilst they fly," he added.
Aside from Virgin, Gogo provides in-flight Internet service to 10 major airlines from various countries. This includes over 2,000 commercial airplanes and 6,000 business aircrafts.
The company is scheduled to launch its 2Ku system in all of its partners' aircrafts by mid-2015.
"Gogo has proven time and again that it's the leader in developing and operationalizing new technologies for the aero market," the company's CEO Michael Small commented.
"2Ku is the next step in our technological evolution and is a ground-breaking new technology for the global commercial aviation market," he added.
In the U.S., mobile communications company T-Mobile also partnered with Gogo to provide free in-flight texting service to passengers, according to Future Travel Experience. They can also send pictures and retrieve voicemail messages as long as they are on Gogo-equipped aircrafts.
