Satellite communications company, Viasat, has made an announcement claiming that its JetXP in-flight broadband service for business aviation is now delivering five-times more capacity in its Ka-band network across the Eastern USA than at launch under a year ago, with a phased nationwide expansion due in the coming months.
The increased performance was achieved as part of Viasat’s business aviation enhancement programme, with improvements such as uncapped speeds, increased network prioritisation, and optimised satellite asset management.
This capacity boost applies to Viasat customers that are using the Honeywell JetWave or Gogo Plane Simple Ka-band terminals. For JetWave customers, the performance can be further optimised by adopting the terminal’s latest software version, further details of which can be obtained from the relevant service provider.
JetXP is the result of bringing together the legacy Jet ConneX and Viasat Ka services under one unified brand. The service was developed following consultation with customers, partners and research agencies. The results, together with detailed analysis of usage trends, indicated that expectations around business aviation connectivity have evolved considerably. Viasat believes that traditional speed-based plans are now outdated and instead, customers have broadened their focus to the overall experience.
Viasat reports that this hike in performance has received a positive response from customers travelling on busy flight routes over major eastern US hubs. The company cites a Large Cabin Gulfstream operator who stated, “We have flown several legs since the additional capacity and new software was launched, and the Wi-Fi performance has been truly outstanding – greatly enhancing all of our online needs. We also appreciate that the software upgrade was fast and seamless, enabling our connectivity experience to be fully optimised.”
Kai Tang, head of business aviation at Viasat, said of the increased performance: “JetXP already delivers our best-ever in-flight broadband experience for business aviation by unleashing the full power of our global Ka-band network. We’re excited to now introduce our highest ever capacity increase over the United States for business aviation customers in direct response to their specific requirements.”
