Review: Norwegian Wi-Fi - Slow but Useful

• By Niko Suominen
• 02 September 2022 - 9 min read

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Norwegian Air Shuttle was a pioneer airline that offered in-flight Wi-Fi. While the service was free at the time, it is now charged. We tested Norwegian Air's new Wi-Fi on our flight from Helsinki to Tivat. Read on to discover whether we were happy with the quality.

Norwegian Air's Wi-Fi

Norwegian Air Shuttle was the first airline to launch a free in-flight Wi-Fi service in 2011 for European routes. During those days, free Wi-Fi was a clear advantage in terms of marketing against other airlines in Europe. Even though Norwegian's free Wi-Fi didn't always work well, passengers enjoyed complimentary online connectivity on holiday and business trips.

More than 10 years have passed, and Norwegian's in-flight Wi-Fi has become a paid service. Meanwhile, other airlines have introduced Wi-Fi for short and long-haul routes. One thing is common: almost all airlines charge a small fee for Wi-Fi usage.

Norwegian's original Wi-Fi was criticized for being congested, and the main reason for that was probably the free price, leading to multiple users simultaneously. To make the service better, Norwegian changed Wi-Fi to a paid service. This change gave the airline another advantage, too; paid Wi-Fi service is now another way to collect money from travellers in a challenging market environment.

Aircraft with Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi systems have been installed in the majority of Norwegian's Boeing 737-800 and MAX fleet. You can always expect an internet connection option when Norwegian operates the flight.

How In-flight Wi-Fi Works?

Inside the aeroplane are Wi-Fi base stations to which users' devices connect. From the aircraft, internet traffic is tuned to a ground station via a satellite and from the ground station to the public internet. The satellite connection is the most complex part of the system. Satellites and the aircraft move at a high velocity, which leads to the need to adjust the aircraft's antenna continuously.

Usually, in the cabin, there is also a proxy that keeps a local cache. With the aid of the proxy, redundant data is not transferred between the aircraft and the internet repeatedly, but the plane's proxy keeps copies of popular content. Also, the captive portal and the flight information system are inside the plane. The portal displays users a web page where Premium Wi-Fi can be purchased and shares flight status information.

Wi-Fi Packages

Norwegian's Wi-Fi has three levels of service.

Surf: A Free Time-Limited internet Connection

The free Wi-Fi is called Surf, and it is almost like Norwegian's original Wi-Fi, but this free Wi-Fi connection is limited to 15 minutes. Everyone can use Surf without paying a fee or providing personal or card details. Norwegian says this connection is slower and probably meant only for web browsing. According to our experiences, instant messaging also works well.

Stream Limited: Wi-Fi for 1 Hour

Stream is a premium connection package. The service is ideal for streaming, social media and surfing. This service plan is limited to 1 hour.

Norwegian promises the connection to be fast but does not guarantee any bandwidth level. The price is about 4 euros for 60 minutes.

Stream Unlimited: Wi-Fi for the Whole Flight

The Stream plan can also be bought for the whole duration of the flight. The price is about 8 euros.

We tested a VPN connection through Norwegian's Stream service, which worked without issues.

Our Experiences with Norwegian's Wi-Fi

We have tested Norwegian Wi-Fi multiple times. Experiences in this article were collected on the flight from Helsinki to Tivat with Norwegian's Boeing 737-800 aircraft in 2022. First, we tested the free basic Wi-Fi and then the Stream plan, which cost 8 euros for the whole duration of the flight. The prices will most likely differ depending on the route. Compared to other airlines, the price range of Norwegian's Wi-Fi service is considerably more affordable.

Connecting to Wi-Fi

You can connect to Wi-Fi with any Wi-Fi-enabled device. For example, using a mobile phone, tablet or computer. First, you need to connect to the aircraft's Wi-Fi network and then open a portal with a web browser, like Chrome. On the portal, you can choose which Wi-Fi package you wish to use.

Paid packages can be bought directly with a payment card or a voucher from the crew. With the voucher code, the Wi-Fi package can then be activated.

Quality

The user experience is probably the most important metric for internet connectivity, but we also made a few simple technical measurements to see if the results match our experiences.

We measured the download speed with a speed test service on the internet. The free Wi-Fi result was low but much more than Norwegian's estimated 0.128 Mbit/s. On the paid Stream plan, the measured speed was about 2 Mbit/s. In comparison, we have also tested Finnair Wi-Fi whose speed was 15 Mbit/s.

After the download speed test, we measured the connection delay, which tells how fast a user can expect any server reply. According to our measurements, the lowest delay is about 850ms (almost a second!). This is the shortest time before you get any reply from a server, no matter your service. The delay is an unfortunate side effect because the aircraft's internet connection uses satellites. Good quality home internet has a delay of 10 to 20 ms. This is something that can't be easily improved when using satellite technology.

The connection speed that a user experiences depends on the delay and the available bandwidth.

Our technical measurements were simple, but the bandwidth between the internet and the aircraft is low. All users in the same aircraft share the same bandwidth. The more users online, the worse the browsing quality experience will be.

Nobody should expect any airline to offer excellent internet connectivity. As long as the connection uses satellites, the delay stays high, which affects the user experience. Also, the whole aircraft usually has much less bandwidth than a single mobile phone on the ground.

A good thing was that the connection was stable during our experiments.

We have tested a similar Wi-Fi service on Finnair's short-haul flight on Airbus A321. Finnair's Wi-Fi might be a little better. Before the purchase decision, Finnair shared facts about the gaps in the satellite coverage. The user gets well-informed about what to expect and when to expect communication breaks.

We believe Norwegian's free Wi-Fi is good enough for instant messaging, emailing and simple web browsing. The paid Stream service is better for streaming and VPN connections. You can't expect the same user experience as at home, but using the internet in an aircraft requires much more patience. Since the price of the Wi-Fi connection is small, it still gives enough value for the money.

Security

The Wi-Fi connection is not secure. It is important to use integrated encryption applications. On a web browser, we advise checking that the website is encrypted, which can be recognized by the HTTPS prefix or a lock symbol in the address bar. Aircraft is not a place to handle confidential information without proper tools.

We understand that the network does not provide security, so we only use secure applications in an aircraft.

Flight Information via Wi-Fi

A nice extra feature of Norwegian's Wi-Fi is that you will get real-time flight information on the portal. With a web browser, you can check the aircraft's speed, altitude and current direction. Also, the location and estimated remaining flight time are shared on a map. This service works fast because all the data comes directly from the aircraft's systems.

The portal also shares information about your flight destination. Using the portal is free of charge.

Bottom Line

If you need a stable internet connection during a Norwegian flight, buy the premium Stream Wi-Fi service. It is faster and more stable than the free time-limited plan. Norwegian promises speed is as good as in an internet cafe or mobile phone, but the reality is worse. The speed is much lower than with public Wi-Fi. The connection is still good enough for simple working and entertainment purposes.

The free Surf connection is good enough to browse the random web and send a few messages. Remember, though, its usage is time-limited.

Have you tested Norwegian's Wi-Fi? How was your experience?

Tags: Norwegian, WiFi, review
Destination: Norway