back to article Inmarsat aircraft Wi-Fi lift off set to fill coffers

Brit satellite biz Inmarsat has doubled its statutory profits and grown its revenues, thanks mainly to its in-flight Wi-Fi offerings. A 50 per cent jump in its aviation business unit sales, from $35.9m to $53.9m, spurred Inmarsat’s group revenues to $358.3m – an increase of five per cent from Q3 2016’s $341.9m, it announced on …

  1. K

    "along with a flurry of Asian low-cost carriers including Air Asia"

    I do believe western budget airlines are fast turning into "3rd class carriers"... Can't ever imagine Squeezy Jet or Ryan unfAir doing this, all we get these days is less for more... To even call them budget airline is a bit of an insult.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Satellite in-flight Wi-Fi ..

    How does Satellite in-flight Wi-Fi actually work?

    1. Trigonoceps occipitalis

      Re: Satellite in-flight Wi-Fi ..

      Well, you see, its this series of tubes ....

    2. anothercynic Silver badge

      Re: Satellite in-flight Wi-Fi ..

      Yes, it does. Ask anyone on Emirates, Etihad or Qatar, who have all rolled it out, or those lucky enough to fly on the Virgin Atlantic jets that have it installed already... BA is following suit. Norwegian has it too, but they apparently struggle a little bit with bandwidth. Might be the band they use (Ku vs Ka Band).

      1. GBE

        Re: Satellite in-flight Wi-Fi ..

        >> How does it work?

        > Yes, it does.

        Huh?

    3. Alistair
      Windows

      Re: Satellite in-flight Wi-Fi ..

      @Walter:

      First one gets on an airplane.......

    4. JohnG11

      Re: Satellite in-flight Wi-Fi ..

      Well, on-board you see a wi-fi router which you'll have to access in the normal way.

      Mounted under the skin on the roof of the aircraft is an antenna pointing upwards. The associated electronics optimises the signal to one of the Inmarsat satellites, about 36,000 Km up, in geostationary orbit, and establishes a link to its broadband service. Just don't expect a high speed service, I think it's about 384kbps.

      1. anothercynic Silver badge

        Re: Satellite in-flight Wi-Fi ..

        It's more than 384 kbps. It's now in the Mbps range (with Inmarsat GlobalXpress anyway). ;-)

    5. TheVogon

      Re: Satellite in-flight Wi-Fi ..

      "How does Satellite in-flight Wi-Fi actually work?"

      It uses a very long Ethernet cable.

  3. Sam Haine

    Dividend cover 0.98

    INMARSAT pays out slightly more in dividends per share than it makes in earnings after tax etc per share. Slowly but surely management are hollowing the company out to pay the dividend, which is why the share price fell after these interim results were released.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Dividend cover 0.98

      INMARSAT pays out slightly more in dividends per share than it makes in earnings after tax etc per share.

      If they don't need the cash, why keep it? It would just make the company a more attractive takeover target for bungling foreign corporations who'd add nothing other than price rises for customers.

  4. herman

    Hmm, I haven't ever seen anybody actually use inflight internet - people don't want to pay for it.

    The reason people don't want to pay for it, is because it is ridiculously expensive and people don't expect it to work well enough to be worth paying anything for.

    1. Pascal Monett Silver badge

      Seems to go contrary to the fact that over a thousand airliners have it installed. If they went through the effort to get it up and running, somebody must be using it.

      I note that Asian arlines have it installed. Seems to indicate that Asian businessmen may be the driving force behind it - or 1st-class passengers in the Northern hemisphere.

      Obviously we're not going to see usage in coach. Not until WiFi comes free with the plane ticket, that is, and I won't be holding my breath for that.

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