In-flight wi-fi may sound like a great way to keep in touch with friends and family or catch up on work, but services are often so slow, you’re better off sticking to the in-flight magazine.

New satellite-based wi-fi services promise to change that, prompting a grab for capacity and customers by companies such as Inmarsat Plc, Viasat Inc, Gogo Inc, Panasonic and Global Eagle Entertainment Inc.

Wi-fi on US domestic routes is already widespread although air-to-ground (ATG) technology can mean service is slow. In Europe, a patchwork of regulatory regimes has hindered the creation of any substantial ATG networks, while satellite-based systems have until now been too expensive for short-haul routes.

Satellite-based systems can provide coverage across the whole world, including over oceans, where ATG falls short. Additional beams are typically overlaid to follow traffic flows, to provide extra broadband capacity for more congested flight areas.

Inmarsat, long a provider of satellite communications to the maritime industry, has spent five years building its Global Express network for aviation. Final ground and flight testing is underway, with three satellites already in service.

“Existing solutions have not met market expectations ... Despite all of the happy talk, the state of play is an inconsistent patchwork,” Leo Mondale, president of Inmarsat Aviation, said at the Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg.

US-based rival Viasat is launching two new high-powered satellites that it says will significantly improve broadband speeds from next year.

According to a 2016 global report by Routehappy, which rates flight amenities, travellers currently have a chance of getting wi-fi on more than one-third of available seats worldwide, with around 60 airlines offering the service.

But just 6 per cent of the flights with wi-fi have connectivity that is comparable to a home broadband service and which allows for data-rich usage such as video streaming.

It’s not just passengers who like wi-fi on board. It can also be used in the cockpit to identify weather patterns, optimise routes, and for quick identification and reporting of maintenance issues, Carl Esposito, vice president of marketing and product management at Honeywell Aerospace, told Reuters.

Honeywell teams with Inmarsat to provide the hardware for airlines to connect to the Global Express network.