ka-sat
Latest
El Al teams up with ViaSat for speedy in-flight WiFi on flights to Europe
ViaSat's not yet a household name here in the US, but the company's super-fast WiFi is well on its way, due in no small part to successful launches on JetBlue and United. Now, the satellite provider is set to bring its Exede in-flight internet to El Al passengers, operating on several 737s between Tel Aviv and cities in Europe. Unlike the North American service, which connects to ViaSat-1, this European counterpart will hook up with Eutelsat's Ka-Sat, with ViaSat's terminals and antennas handling the connection on each plane. El Al plans to launch the Ka-band service within the next year.
Eutelsat's Ka-Sat blasts off for adventure and good uplink speeds (video)
Oh, look at you Europe, with your white Christmas blizzards and your fancy satellites. All proud and bragging as your second internet-beaming vehicle in as many months rockets off into orbital oblivion. Following November's Hylas 1 is Ka-Sat, using the same spotbeam technology to rain down limited, focused areas of connectivity that are a couple-hundred kilometers across, allowing better management of overall satellite bandwidth. Hylas 1 used its beams to cover areas across the UK and Eastern Europe, while Ka-Sat will cover more areas of Europe and also hit parts of the Middle East. Maximum speeds offered to subscribers will be 10Mbps down, 4Mbps up, but with only 900Mbps on tap total per beam we're thinking that could get a little slower on Saturday nights. Obligatory countdown and blastoff video below.
