Australian flag carrier Qantas is touting free in-flight Wi-Fi on domestic routes after agreeing a deal with Internet provider ViaSat.
The airline will begin trials of ViaSat’s high speed Ka-band service utilising NBN Co’s satellite network.
The service is expected to roll out across Qantas’ domestic fleet in early 2017.
"You won’t be limited to checking your email or Facebook — it’s going to be about watching the football live, streaming your favourite TV show or movie, catching up on the latest YouTube videos, or shopping online," Qantas CEO Alan Joyce said in a statement.
"As a premium carrier, delivering value for money to our customers is extremely important to us. That’s why we’ll be offering access to Wi-Fi for free. Bringing high-speed on-board Wi-Fi to the Australian domestic market has been an ambition of ours for a long time. What we’ve been waiting for is the ability to deliver the same speeds in flight that people expect on the ground — and we now have access to the technology to make it happen."
ViaSat’s system is deployed on hundreds of aircraft in the US flown by major carriers including JetBlue and Virgin America, which it claims is up to ten times faster than rival providers.
Qantas said it was also looking at rolling out high speed Wi-Fi on budget carrier Jetstar’s fleet but this would likely result in a fee based on its current no frills business model.
