WEBVTT 00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:06.799 When you think about it, air travel really isn't all that great. I mean, 00:00:03.840 --> 00:00:11.759 sure, you can get from New York to LA in 6 hours. But unlike driving where you 00:00:09.679 --> 00:00:16.960 can pull off the highway and hit up the nearest Arby's when you get a hankering, 00:00:14.880 --> 00:00:23.439 when you're on a plane, you're basically crammed into a 500 mph glorified bus 00:00:21.039 --> 00:00:28.080 with wings and a bunch of sweaty strangers. And if you decided to step 00:00:26.000 --> 00:00:32.559 out for a snack, well, I hope you packed your parachute. But even though the 00:00:30.480 --> 00:00:37.600 airlines have been hitting us over the head recently with bag fees and 00:00:35.440 --> 00:00:43.680 disappointing food offerings, they have at least tried to make flying a little 00:00:40.640 --> 00:00:47.039 more tolerable by offering us inflight 00:00:43.680 --> 00:00:50.239 wireless internet. Huzzah. 00:00:47.039 --> 00:00:53.280 But how exactly does Wi-Fi work when 00:00:50.239 --> 00:00:57.520 you're six miles off the ground? Why is 00:00:53.280 --> 00:01:00.000 it so spotty? And is it possible to make 00:00:57.520 --> 00:01:05.040 it better in the future? Well, when inflight Wi-Fi first became a thing in 00:01:02.399 --> 00:01:09.840 the early to mid 2000s, it usually worked by beaming an internet connection 00:01:07.200 --> 00:01:14.880 to a transponder attached to the plane using satellites, similar to how folks 00:01:12.479 --> 00:01:19.840 in rural areas without cable, DSL or fiber infrastructure use satellite 00:01:16.960 --> 00:01:24.720 dishes to get online. Today these systems are still in use along with 00:01:22.320 --> 00:01:30.799 another system called airto ground transmission or ATG. This takes the form 00:01:28.000 --> 00:01:37.360 of towers similar to cell phone towers which have the advantage of being a lot 00:01:34.079 --> 00:01:40.640 cheaper than satellite internet but they 00:01:37.360 --> 00:01:43.200 obviously only work over land. I haven't 00:01:40.640 --> 00:01:47.840 seen any floating cell phone towers on open barges yet. And there are other 00:01:45.360 --> 00:01:52.960 disadvantages too. Not only do these towers suffer from geographical 00:01:50.960 --> 00:01:59.439 restrictions, but the service they provide can be painfully slow. As anyone 00:01:56.880 --> 00:02:05.520 who's ever tried to stream anything on a plane probably knows. In the US, for 00:02:02.479 --> 00:02:08.640 example, there's only a 3 megahertz 00:02:05.520 --> 00:02:11.360 slice of the radio spectrum assigned to 00:02:08.640 --> 00:02:17.280 airline internet. So you compare that to the average home Wi-Fi connection which 00:02:13.760 --> 00:02:18.879 can use anywhere from 20 to 160 00:02:17.280 --> 00:02:24.480 megahertz. So this ends up meaning then that ATG 00:02:21.840 --> 00:02:28.879 systems don't provide great speeds usually somewhere in the neighborhood of 00:02:25.920 --> 00:02:33.360 about 5 megabit per second. Satellite internet is faster with speeds of up to 00:02:31.360 --> 00:02:38.640 50 megabit per second on what's called the coup band, which is the same range 00:02:36.000 --> 00:02:44.319 of spectrum used to be satellite TV to your house. But with how many people can 00:02:42.319 --> 00:02:50.160 fly on an average commercial airliner like the Boeing 737 at once, even a 50 00:02:48.239 --> 00:02:54.480 megabit connection can mean doing something as simple as downloading a 00:02:51.840 --> 00:03:00.480 word document can be frustratingly slow if lots of passengers are connected at 00:02:57.200 --> 00:03:03.280 the same time. One of the reasons, aside 00:03:00.480 --> 00:03:09.280 from the usual corporate greed, that Wi-Fi costs extra on your flight. And 00:03:06.720 --> 00:03:13.760 current tech also requires airlines to bolt bulky antennas onto their planes. 00:03:12.159 --> 00:03:18.560 These are heavy enough to have a significant effect on the plane's weight 00:03:15.920 --> 00:03:23.120 and aerodynamics, meaning higher fuel costs, which are passed along to you, 00:03:21.040 --> 00:03:28.239 the poor sucker who's just trying to fly home for Christmas. 00:03:25.280 --> 00:03:33.360 But the days of inevitably crappy in-flight internet may finally be 00:03:30.400 --> 00:03:38.879 numbered as major air carriers are now starting to install CAB band KA band 00:03:36.560 --> 00:03:43.680 satellite antennas which have the potential due to their higher bandwidth 00:03:41.360 --> 00:03:48.480 to reach hundreds of megabytes per second enough for streaming even on a 00:03:46.319 --> 00:03:53.360 crowded plane where lots of people are trying to connect. In fact, JetBlue in 00:03:51.280 --> 00:03:58.080 the United States has already deployed the new tech on some of its planes. So, 00:03:56.239 --> 00:04:02.400 keep an eye out if you'll be using them to get to your final destination. And 00:04:00.720 --> 00:04:06.799 even better than that, actually, some of the new CAB band antennas, such as one 00:04:04.959 --> 00:04:11.280 being developed by the Kimeta Corporation in Washington State, are 00:04:08.959 --> 00:04:16.160 much thinner and less power hungry than their predecessors, encouraging airlines 00:04:13.680 --> 00:04:20.000 to install them on more planes without having to worry about how they'll affect 00:04:17.919 --> 00:04:24.639 flight performance. So maybe one day soon you'll be able to live stream your 00:04:22.320 --> 00:04:29.280 next transcontinental flight and show your captivated audience just how 00:04:26.960 --> 00:04:35.759 appalling the condition of the lavatory really is. 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