High bandwidth delivery and internet access for airborne passengers

An air to ground air-to-ground communication system, comprising comprising:

• (a) an airborne terminal coupled to an airborne transceiver and first antenna;
• (b) a low bandwidth downlink provided by the airborne transceiver and first antenna;
• (c) a ground based ground-based gateway for receiving the low bandwidth down link downlink;
• (d) a data network coupled to the ground based ground-based gateway via a server;
• (e) a high bandwidth satellite uplink coupled to the data network;
• and
• (f) an airborne receiver and second antenna coupled to the uplink whereby a data request from the airborne terminal is transmitted to the data network via the airborne transceiver and first antenna, the low bandwidth down link downlink, the ground based ground-based gateway and the server and the requested data is transmitted by the data network to the airborne terminal via the high bandwidth satellite uplink and the airborne receiver and second antenna.

A method for air-to-ground communication for use by an airborne passenger computer, the method comprising:

• transmitting a request for data from the airborne passenger computer via an airborne transceiver and at least a first antenna using a low bandwidth communication link, wherein the low bandwidth communication link is a communication link from the air to the ground;
• wherein the request for data is transmitted to a ground-based gateway linked to a server, wherein the server is coupled with the Internet, and wherein the requested data is available from the Internet;
• and
• transmitting the requested data via the Internet to the airborne passenger computer via a high bandwidth satellite communication link, wherein the high bandwidth satellite communication link is a communication link from the ground to the air,
• wherein the requested data is transmitted to the airborne passenger computer, via an airborne receiver coupled with a second antenna, in response to the request for data from the airborne passenger computer.