Yearning For Faster WiFi In The Sky: Virgin America Partners With ViaSat

Virgin America Inc (NASDAQ: VA) announced on Tuesday that it is partnering with ViaSat, Inc. (NASDAQ: VSAT) to offer faster WiFi connectivity in its 10 new A320 aircraft beginning September of this year.

David Cush, Virgin America CEO, was on CNBC recently to weigh in on this.

30X Faster Than Original ATG Antenna

"We are starting out with the new planes," Cush began. "So, the first thing it does of course is it uses KA-satellite across the domestic U.S. That will deliver speed up to 30 times the speed of the original ATG antenna that most airlines still fly and 10 times what our current aircraft will do."

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He elaborated, "So, essentially, you will be able to stream video with absolutely no headache. What we think is interesting about this antenna is it's a dual antenna that also uses the KU-satellites across the Pacific. So, we can have a single antenna offer very fast WiFi across the U.S. and adequate WiFi to Hawaii now."

Leading Edge

Cush was asked how much of a competitive advantage providing faster WiFi would be for Virgin America. He replied, "Well, we think it's a significant competitive advantage. United has got some KA. JetBlue has some KA.

"But no one really has both the combination of KA and KU. So, they can either have a KU system with slower U.S. speeds or a KA system with only Internet over the U.S. This is a new antenna developed by ViaSat, and we think it's a leading edge," Cush concluded.

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