Narrative:

It has been about over a year since we were told the wi-fi issue on the 787 would be attended to and in the meantime; not to write it up in the logbook. While over the pacific in the area; at FL380; I once again tried to login to wsi [pilot brief] in search of turbulence along our planned flight path. I received a weak signal; but not enough for wsi to function. One of my first officers suggested the window heat was causing the interference. I switched the window heat off to see if that was the cause. Still the signal was too weak. I switched them back on. Later; I tried receiving the signal from the sleeping bunk. The signal started to improve and I was able to download some weather but in short order; I again lost the signal. Finally; I gave up any hope of using wsi as an inflight weather source.cause: failure of manufacturer to adequately address 787 wi-fi issue. Suggestions: it's high time the 787 wi-fi issue be resolved. While other methods of obtaining weather exist; the more confined nature of our airspace with increased traffic and tighter spacing demands we send weather deviation request to ATC as early as possible. To be as proactive as possible; we need real time weather information. Having access to wi-fi weather is quickly moving from a nice to have feature to a necessity. We receive a constant stream of memos talking about giving the flight attendants an earlier warning of turbulence; let's work on giving the pilots an earlier warning of turbulence. If safety is truly our number one priority; then let's take a more serious look at resolving the wi-fi issue on the 787.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B787 Captain reported that due to weak Wi-Fi signals they are unable to get updated inflight weather over the Pacific using the WSI Pilotbrief App.

Narrative: It has been about over a year since we were told the Wi-Fi issue on the 787 would be attended to and in the meantime; not to write it up in the logbook. While over the Pacific in the area; at FL380; I once again tried to login to WSI [pilot brief] in search of turbulence along our planned flight path. I received a weak signal; but not enough for WSI to function. One of my First Officers suggested the window heat was causing the interference. I switched the window heat off to see if that was the cause. Still the signal was too weak. I switched them back on. Later; I tried receiving the signal from the sleeping bunk. The signal started to improve and I was able to download some weather but in short order; I again lost the signal. Finally; I gave up any hope of using WSI as an inflight weather source.Cause: Failure of manufacturer to adequately address 787 Wi-Fi issue. Suggestions: It's high time the 787 Wi-Fi issue be resolved. While other methods of obtaining weather exist; the more confined nature of our airspace with increased traffic and tighter spacing demands we send weather deviation request to ATC as early as possible. To be as proactive as possible; we need real time weather information. Having access to Wi-Fi weather is quickly moving from a nice to have feature to a necessity. We receive a constant stream of memos talking about giving the Flight Attendants an earlier warning of turbulence; let's work on giving the pilots an earlier warning of turbulence. If safety is truly our number one priority; then let's take a more serious look at resolving the Wi-Fi issue on the 787.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.