GA pilots will have affordable Wi-Fi in their airplanes within about three years and much greater access to space-based services thanks to a $3 billion investment by a Virginia company. Starting in April, Iridium will launch the first of 72 new communications satellites that will, among other things, increase the speed of its Internet signals fiftyfold. The full constellation of satellites will be in a 495-mile polar orbit by 2017 giving worldwide coverage for a host of communications services, including global Internet at speeds up to 1.4 mbs. CEO Matt Desch said that while that is slow by broadband standards, it's exponentially faster than the satellite services currently available and the increased capacity of the satellites will allow affordable onboard Wi-Fi at speeds (likely around 100 kbs) useable by phones, tablets and computers. He said the signal availability will allow hardware makers to create a portable device that will sit on the glare shield (or a picnic blanket on top of a mountain) and work as an Internet hotspot. "That will do an awful lot for the GA pilot," said Desch. He said text, data, tracking and other real-time services will also be possible and developers will have a field day with the new capabilities.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.avweb.com/avionics/better-ga-wi-fi-on-the-horizon