Airplane Wi-Fi has been around for decades but its reliability and speeds can vary widely depending on the airline, the route and the type and age of the aircraft.

American Airlines, United and other U.S. airlines have been updating their fleets to provide better wifi. Delta has spent over $1 billion retrofitting its planes to bring free wifi to its customers.

The airline is using Viasat, one of the leading providers of satellite internet, to deliver Wi-Fi on board.Viasat recently launched a new satellite with faster speeds and more capacity, which the company says will help keep up with the growing demand for the airline industry.

CNBC got an inside look at how Delta is working to upgrade over 1,200 planes by 2024.

Chapters:
00:00 — Introduction
02:00 — How it works
04:07 — Big players
07:44 — Airlines
10:45 — The future

Produced, Shot and Edited by Erin Black
Animation by Jason Reginato
Supervising Producer Jeniece Pettitt
Additional Camera by Shawn Baldwin, Andrew Evers
Production Support Tala Hadavi, Leslie Josephs

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Why Wi-Fi On Airplanes Is So Bad