Air-to-ground in-flight connectivity provider SmartSky Networks has shared customer feedback regarding the company’s outstanding connectivity offering. Citation CJ3+ owner-operator and pilot David Natinsky, who is present at the NBAA-BACE event this week in Las Vegas to share his first-hand experience with SmartSky, said: “We’ve all flown with other providers, and we all know the majority of the time when you try to send something, it doesn’t go through until you land.
“On a trip last week, I had eight passengers who were on the internet the entire time. We landed and everyone was ready to go – on the way back, we landed, and everyone was ready to go. What usually happens is when you land, you’re going to the hotel or going home and spending the next hour or two hours catching up from when you were flying. With SmartSky, you’re not having to do that anymore.”
“Everyone harps on the numbers (speeds, latency, throughput). When my son decided to FaceTime me from the back of the plane at 45,000 feet, I could see him behind me in the cabin as we were going back and forth (onscreen). The reality was it was as close to being real-time as it could possibly be – I don’t need to know the numbers, it just works.
“When I was doing my homework and investigating connectivity options, the one thing I wanted to make sure of was that I wasn’t putting my money and effort into a service that wasn’t going to deliver. After flying it for almost 100 hours, I know I made the right decision when I chose SmartSky.”
SmartSky offers two hardware configurations, SmartSky LITE which is for smaller aircraft and SmartSky Flagship aimed for mid to large cabin aircraft, and has STCs for a large number of aircraft models. The full list of STCs can be found at smartskynetworks.com/STC.
