High speed Wi-Fi is finally coming to flights in Europe

As domestic airlines have been announcing their plans to increase in-flight Wi-Fi speeds, European travelers have been staring at their lifeless iPads, wondering when they, too, might have fast enough Wi-Fi to tweet about their flights' terrible Wi-Fi. But thanks to a just-announced partnership between Inmarsat, a British satellite company, and Deutsche Telekom, that will be changing within the next couple of years.

The two companies say that they are joining their respective networks and satellites to launch the European Aviation Network, which will provide high-speed internet access to short-haul and medium-haul flights across Europe. Engadget explains:

"The multi-beam satellites rely on Inmarsat's 30MHz (2 x 15MHz) S-band spectrum, which covers all 28 EU member states. Deutsche Telekom, on the other hand, will utilize 300 specially-modified LTE sites that range up to 80 kilometers (normal masts offer around 10 kilometers) and can efficiently deal with the speed of a plane traveling at 10,000 feet."

Lufthansa has signed on to test the new network system and will begin in-flight trials by 2017 (so don't get too excited about that flight to Frankfurt next month). Lufthansa chief executive Carsten Spohr says that the new network will "offer its guests an internet surfing experience boasting the same quality and speed as they are used to at home."

According to the Financial Times, Inmarsat's own executives have suggested that those speeds will be even faster than those offered by Gogo to flights in the United States.

The cost to use Wi-Fi on Lufthansa flights has not yet been determined — but you know there will be a cost. Spohr suggested that the rates could vary depending on the passenger's ticket price and cabin type. But one thing he is sure of is that VoIP calls are not going to be permitted, regardless of whether the network is fast enough to accommodate them. "The explicit wish of our customers is not to allow phone calls on board," he said during a press conference. "And I promise you we will guarantee this very last privilege of privacy."

Whew. Now that's something worth tweeting about.