Greetings from 35,000 feet. I’m blogging live during my flight from Los Angeles to New York. The American Airlines flight features Go Go Inflight WiFi service. For better or for worse, inflight WiFi service is a game changer for road warriors. Here are the details.
Go Go Inflight costs $12.95 for an inflight WiFi broadband connection. I’ve only been using the service for about 10 minutes. But my initial reaction: This is a fantastic service and the broadband connection seems to be faster than many of the hotel WiFi services I’ve used in recent months.
Still, I have plenty of questions:
- Will the WiFi speeds slow down as more people on this flight activate their respective Internet connections?
- Will the WiFi connection to the outside world drop off from time to time because of bad weather, airplane velocity and other issues? We’ve all experienced dropped TV connections on JetBlue flights. I wonder if the same will occur with in-flight WiFi?
- Will businesses expect their traveling employees to work, work, work as in-flight WiFi becomes widely available?
- Who’s going to troubleshoot the service if it goes dark? Does Go Go Internet monitor its inflight systems to ensure network failures (if they occur) are quickly corrected?
Generally speaking, I sleep on flights because I rarely stop working when I’m on the ground. But today, I’ll make an exception. The Go Go Inflight service demanded my attention. Despite my concerns above, I’m pleased to say the following:
- Signing up for the service was simple. My MacBook Pro quickly discovered the Go Go Inflight WiFi signal, and it took me less than five minutes to sign up for an account and activate the service.
- Did I mention the signal is strong and the broadband connection is fast?
Road warriors rejoice (or revolt): You inflight WiFi signal awaits you.
MSPmentor is updated multiple times daily. Don’t miss a single post. Subscribe to our Enewsletter, RSS and Twitter feeds.
Posted In: Platforms
Tags: American Airlines WiFi | Go Go Inflight Internet | Inflight WiFi | Managed WiFi Service | Wireless Internet Inflight
Interact: Add a Comment | Trackback Link | Permalink
Share:
Subscribe: RSS Feed
Talk about ‘Cloud Computing.’
Welcome back to the U.S.A.
We just found the inflight system’s first limitations: Skype phone calls between me and Amy Katz were garbled or got dropped. So much for VoIP from 35,000 feet.
Update: The Go Go documentation says VoIP services are “currently prohibited.” Sounds like a polite way of stating inflight VoIP may — or may not — be coming soon.
No offense, but I don’t think anyone wants to be the person sitting next to someone trying to talk via Skype on a flight. I’m really hoping that gets blocked. Use IM - it’s quieter!!
ekb88: I agree with your point. I don’t plan to use Skype VoIP (and yes, that service is blocked). But it would be nice to know the VoIP service is available — just in case I needed it.
While in-flight internet access might improve productivity, I dread the day when people are yapping on their cell phones or making Skype type calls while jammed on an airplane. Airplanes are a miserable place to be anyway - can you imagine what will happen if people can make calls while in-flight? It will be anarchy up there - flying insane asylums. “Can you hear me? I’m on an airplane! I said an airplane! ARE YOU THERE?!”
OMG please never let it happen.
Ditto Justin’s comment. UGH.
Your question list left out one other important point. Is the service secure from prying cybereyes. Just because you are at 35000 feet does not mean you should forget best practices for secure computing when connected wirelessly. IF you want to see just how vulnerable your company and personal information is when using a hotspot, you can go to AirTight’s Knowledge Center at http://www.airtightnetworks.com/home/resources/knowledge-center.html
Hey Della: Good to have your perspective but please disclose that you work for AirTight in the future comments you post. The site sounds interesting and I will give it a look.