Continental Airlines to Expand Inflight Wi-Fi Service

Continental Airlines has executed a letter of intent with inflight entertainment provider LiveTV to offer inflight Wi-Fi via Ka-band beginning next year.

The company plans to offer the service on more than 200 domestic Boeing 737 and 757 aircraft equipped with DirecTV, providing onboard connectivity and more than 95 channels of live television programming to customers flying within the continental United States.

Ka-band will be able to offer higher transmission speeds for more extensive onboard connection capabilities, including browsing of content-rich websites, sending and receiving e-mails and downloading files.

United Airlines currently offers inflight internet service on 14 aircraft, including on all p.s. flights linking New York Kennedy with Los Angeles and San Francisco.

The letter of intent with LiveTV provides the framework for a definitive agreement to be negotiated with LiveTV. Ka-band will utilize ViaSat’s ViaSat-1, which will be one of the world’s highest-capacity satellites upon its launch later in 2011.

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