Mango in-flight Wi-Fi tested
More than a year has passed since Mango, WirelessG, and Vodacom launched in-flight Wi-Fi on domestic flights in South Africa, and results of recent tests we conducted on such a flight are positive.
You won’t be downloading (or streaming) a movie to watch during a flight from Johannesburg to Cape Town, but the service did live up to its promise of providing Internet access for e-mail and web browsing.
To use Mango’s in-flight Wi-Fi you’ll have to buy a voucher either through the Mango site or directly from WirelessG which costs from R50 for a single flight (valid for 3 hours from activation), to R250 for a “Super Travellers Pass” which is valid for a month and offers 300 minutes of G-Connect Wi-Fi access whether in the air or on the ground.
When we were booking our flights Mango was running a special on the single flight pass, reducing the price from R50 to R5.
It is worth noting that our flight from Lanseria to Cape Town did not have Wi-Fi. Travellers were notified of this only when the aircraft had taken off, with Mango saying that the Wi-Fi equipment had either not been installed or activated yet as the aircraft was new.
On the return flight where Wi-Fi was available, we received consistent speeds and were able to chat, send e-mails, and browse with minimal interruption.
However, as might be expected when hurtling through the sky at around 800km/h, you do occasionally lose connectivity.
During a 1.5 hour flight with mixed weather conditions we noticed a loss of Internet access four times (Google Talk disconnecting and reconnecting), and each time it was restored quickly after it dropped.
Mango in-flight Wi-Fi from WirelessG and Vodacom Speedtest results
Most of the throughput tests conducted using Ookla’s Speedtest services yielded download speeds of just below 1 Megabit per seconds (Mbps) and upload speeds of around 40 kilobits per second (0.04 Mbps).
The average ping to the MyBroadband site, which is hosted in South Africa, was 858 milliseconds (ms).
Latency to sites and services hosted elsewhere in the world were somewhat higher, with an average ping on 973ms to Gmail and 4124ms to the New York Times website.
As can be seen from the screenshot below, the pings to the New York Times website were sent during a period of intermittent connectivity. Typical pings to the US (as seen in the Speedtest.net results) ranged between 990ms and 1500ms.
Access to YouTube was blocked, therefore the performance of the connection when streaming media wasn’t tested.
Mango in-flight Wi-Fi from WirelessG and Vodacom pings
The Verdict
Although the slow upload speeds make voice-over-IP calls and sharing large photos infeasible, G-Connect clearly advertises its in-flight Wi-Fi as a service for e-mail, instant messaging, social networking, and browsing.
When limited to this type of usage, the Wi-Fi offering on Mango’s aircraft from WirelessG and Vodacom performs well.
One aspect of the service Mango should attend to is letting its customers know well in advance (preferably when booking) whether Wi-Fi is available on a flight or not.
If it’s not possible to warn users before they buy a voucher whether in-flight Wi-Fi is available, travellers should really be offered a refund on the spot.
More on in-flight Wi-Fi in South Africa
First Wi-Fi enabled flight in SA
WirelessG explains in-flight Wi-Fi meltdown
In-flight WiFi finances: WirelessG explains
Mango not fulfilling its WiFi promise: ASA
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