Broadband browsing at 32,000 feet: Air China introduces new fast internet service

Air China has upgraded its in-flight wi-fi system to allow travellers to surf the net with broadband speed at 32,000 feet.

The Beijing-based airline launched its first in-flight wireless system in 2011, enabling passengers to access a local area network on flights. In July 2013, the company kicked off a trial of an upgraded system that strengthened the connection to the Internet.

Despite these efforts, passengers have long been complaining about the stability of the wireless system. Even if devices were lucky enough to detect wireless signals, nine times out of ten connections could not be smoothly made. 

Air China's new and improved system, which was tested on flights from Beijing to Chengdu this Wednesday, appears to have fixed many of these connection issues, according to customers who tested it.

Browsing while in flight was a similar experience to surfing at home, a director on board a flight from Beijing to Chengdu posted in his Sina Weibo account on Wednesday afternoon.

Xiao Yang, a mainland microfilm director and actor, uploaded a video of him singing the theme song of one of his most watched microfilms Old Boys, during the flight.

Xiao was one of the passengers invited by Air China to test a new system which allows web surfing at a promised speed of 20-30 megabytes per second. Approximately one third of this data is used to support live TV streaming, such as China Central Television internet broadcasts.