Qantas starts international wifi

[justinbrett]

At this point, I'm hoping for QF to abandon Viasat and move towards Starlink. Friends recently travelled on HA from SYD-HNL.

View attachment 420178

It is piss poor that we are "waiting" for Viasat. Especially in 2024. My friends have moved to SQ or DL for free WiFi now.

Apparently the max bandwidth per aircraft is 350Mbps on Starlink so your friend mustn’t have had much competition. I’m travelling on HA this week so I’ll give it a try myself.

 

[BrianQQ]

Apparently the max bandwidth per aircraft is 350Mbps on Starlink so your friend mustn’t have had much competition. I’m travelling on HA this week so I’ll give it a try myself.

He stated full flight with two people Facetiming, lowest speed he got was 78 down 13 up.

Safe travels and have fun on the Moana 2 branded planes!

 

[justinbrett]

He stated full flight with two people Facetiming

You've lost me right there! Sounds awful.

 

[justinbrett]

He stated full flight with two people Facetiming, lowest speed he got was 78 down 13 up.

Safe travels and have fun on the Moana 2 branded planes!

Average I got was about 150mbps, but it was an overnight flight with seat back IFE so doubt there was heavy demand on the system. It was much slower within the last hour prior to landing as I assume a lot of people were using it.

However I note there is clear rules no voice/video calls, as you log in but also announced by the FAs.

 

[Cognac]

Any inside knowledge on when the 787s are going to be kitted out? I know that they are due to start their install during maintenance as of this month, but I assume that this is subject to change. And I also expect they won't be turning on any of the aircraft until all of the aircraft are kitted out (similar to the A330 approach). Also, why not just turn it on as it is available? Not only does this give the customers on those flights a better experience sooner, it allows them to identify bugs/issues in a staggered release and have them fixed (well, for a given value of Qantas IT fixed) as they go, rather than just releasing everything at once and finding out it doesn't work when they try to turn it on?

 

[MelbFlyer]

I was on QF38 SIN to MEL the other day operated by an A330-200 and I was able to access Wi-Fi when the plane was flying over Australia.

Speeds weren't great but usable.

They've removed the IFE screen and instead placed iPads in the seat pockets - it was my first flight on QFi in economy for a number of years so I hadn't seen it first hand.

Would probably still prefer the IFE screen in-built but I guess things change.

 

[wenglock.mok]

I was on QF38 SIN to MEL the other day operated by an A330-200 and I was able to access Wi-Fi when the plane was flying over Australia.

Speeds weren't great but usable.

They've removed the IFE screen and instead placed iPads in the seat pockets - it was my first flight on QFi in economy for a number of years so I hadn't seen it first hand.

Would probably still prefer the IFE screen in-built but I guess things change.

You actually flew on one of the domestic A330-200s operated on an international sector, which explains the lack of an in-seat IFE and the availability of wifi over Australia. With the drop in domestic demand, they are now operating these on the shorter international sectors (SIN, CGK, DPS and MNL).

The international A330-200s do have in-seat IFEs and will be getting wifi sometime in 2025. These are also the birds that will be getting new seats and seatback screens in economy sometime this year.

 

[wenglock.mok]

I am currently on EBN and it appears they have quietly launched their free wifi service on the international A330-200s as I am posting this using the “Qantas Free Wi-fi” SSID.

 

[sudoer]

I am currently on EBN and it appears they have quietly launched their free wifi service on the international A330-200s as I am posting this using the “Qantas Free Wi-fi” SSID.

Flying over Australia still? They've offered wifi on some international routes served by A330s while flying over Australia for about 18 months.

Qantas is offering free Wi-Fi on international flights. But there's a catch - Travel Weekly

From Tuesday, Qantas will offer free high speed Wi-Fi on select international flights, but only while the aircraft is flying over Australia.

travelweekly.com.au

But EBN was the first fitted with the new Viasat equipment so if you've still got internet once the plane is no longer over Aus, I guess they have soft launched. Do a speed test for us

 

[SYD]

Flying over Australia still? They've offered wifi on some international routes served by A330s while flying over Australia for about 18 months.

Qantas is offering free Wi-Fi on international flights. But there's a catch - Travel Weekly

From Tuesday, Qantas will offer free high speed Wi-Fi on select international flights, but only while the aircraft is flying over Australia.

travelweekly.com.au

But EBN was the first fitted with the new Viasat equipment so if you've still got internet once the plane is no longer over Aus, I guess they have soft launched. Do a speed test for us

I flew home from CGK on Saturday and the new system was installed but not turned on. The CSM knew it was new but hadn't been advised when it would be enabled.

So no wifi at all

 

[Lynda2475]

There was no wifi (free or otherwise) flying across the ditch on Friday. There is definitely satellite coverage to NZ so not sure why still not available

 

[moa999]

There is definitely satellite coverage to NZ so not sure why still not available

Not that Qantas subscribes too (or is available to their Ka based system).

At the moment Qantas can only access the two NBN Skymuster satellites which use very narrow spot beams just focussed on Australia and certain islands, but provide Qantas with much higher speeds to each aircraft than Virgins Intelsat 2Ku system.



Viasat 3.3 (Viasat 3 APAC satellite) will have much wider beam spread and cover the Pacific and Indian oceans and the Seas in between.
This is currently scheduled for launch in late 2025.

Ku band v Ka band is kind of like AM v FM. Ku is 12-18Ghz, Ka is 26.5-40Ghz. Ka is generally the newer and higher bandwidth system and each system uses different antenna arrays.

@wenglock.mok should have internet for a few more hours but lose it on the last portion of the flight into Singapore.

 

[AIRwin]

@wenglock.mok should have internet for a few more hours but lose it on the last portion of the flight into Singapore.

On their way:
QF83 from Sydney to Singapore Live Flight Tracker - Real-Time Flight Tracker Map | Flightradar24

 

[wenglock.mok]

Speed test from where we are currently north of Lake Eyre National Park:

 

[Lynda2475]

Optus satellites provide data coverage for Australia and NZ, Qantas need to think beyond nbn satellites.

Domestically I've always found Qantas wifi decent but on flights between SYD and OOL last Thurs and Fri I was struggling to even post to AFF.

 

[moa999]

Optus satellites provide data coverage for Australia and NZ, Qantas need to think beyond nbn satellites.

As described above - they have - with the ViaSat 3 constellation, which back when Qantas seemingly signed the contract back in 2016/17 was meant to be complete by 2021.

But delays are common, so it's now looking like late 2025 at best. Unfortunately satellites are very expensive and afaik customers are highly locked into the contracts, so I doubt Qantas has many options other than to wait for the launch.

 

[wenglock.mok]

Unfortunately, as some of you alluded to above, the wifi coverage on EBN was only while we were still flying over Australia, and coverage dropped the moment we passed the coast near Derby. I am guessing the actual satellites that will allow coverage outside of Australia are not actually in service yet and so we are left with nbn sky muster connectivity for the moment.

I guess the only update is that wifi coverage is now being enabled on the international A332s with a wifi hump when flying over Australia, where there was no coverage before on any of the international A332s (wifi hump installed, or not).

 

[moa999]

And per airliners.net that should be 3 of the 8 international 332s (EBN, EBS, EBV).
EBR might be added soon as it's been in maintenance at BNE for a while.