AirTran set to become the first airline with fleetwide Gogo Inflight Internet access

by Scott Carmichael on

AirTran is the newest airline to bring inflight Internet access to the skies. The airline chose the Gogo Inflight to outfit their planes, which is the driving force behind airborne Internet service on United Airlines, American Airlines, Virgin America and Delta.

What makes the Airtran announcement special, is that their entire fleet will be equipped with the service by mid-summer.

That means all 136 AirTran planes will allow you to get online just in time for your vacation.

Gadling took Gogo Inflight for a spin last year on Virgin America, and as far as I am concerned, the service is the biggest thing to hit the skies since online check-in. Speeds are great, and at $9.95 for flights up to 3 hours, getting online is quite affordable.

Inflight Internet access was just one of the ideas submitted by AirTran passengers on their site “everyflight.com“. Some of the other submissions included “hungry squirrels”, “mojitos” and “remote control cars”. I can see why Internet access won.

American Airlines bringing in-flight Internet to more domestic flights

by Scott Carmichael on

There is no denying it – in-flight Internet is here to stay. The popularity of being able to get some work (or fun) done during your flight helped make in-flight WiFi one of the winners of the 2008 Engadget awards.

This morning, American Airlines announced their commitment to the service by revealing plan to bring the Gogo in-flight Internet service to 300 of its domestic planes.

American Airlines has been testing the service, and has installed it on 15 planes, Passenger feedback has been so positive that 150 of their MD-80’s will be outfitted with the equipment this year, and another 150 planes next year.

Getting online costs just $9.95 for flights 3 hours or less, and $12.95 for longer flights. Recently, Gogo introduced a new price plan for users with a handheld device or smartphone – they can now get online for just $7.95.

I took the Gogo service for a spin last year, and as far as I cam concerned, it can’t can’t come fast enough on every plane in the country.

Big news in inflight Internet – United Airlines and Aircell ink deal

by Scott Carmichael on

Great news from the world of inflight Internet access – United Airlines just committed to adding the Aircell Gogo broadband service to their fleet.

The first planes to benefit from the service are the 13 Boeing 757’s that operate on the United Airlines p.s. routes, from New York JFK to Los Angeles and San Francisco.

United Airlines is the fifth airline to sign a deal with Aircell. Previously American Airlines, Delta, Virgin America and Air Canada decided to offer the service to their passengers, and several of these airlines are already in fairly advanced stages of rolling things out to their entire fleet.

The Aircell Gogo service will be available on these United Airlines planes in the second half of 2009. Access is just $12.95 for the duration of the flight, which is a real bargain considering p.s. flights are all trans-continental.

Once the service comes to other routes, passengers on shorter trips can access the service for $9.95 if their flight is under 3 hours.

We took the Gogo service for a spin on Virgin America back in November, and I was very impressed with the speed, and ease of use. As someone who lives in a United hub city, a fleetwide rollout can’t come fast enough for me.

The addition of United Airlines means that Aircell has managed to sign contracts with most of the major carriers in the US, an amazing achievement in just 12 months.

Inflight Internet on Delta arrives just in time for the Holiday season

by Scott Carmichael on

A mere 4 months after the initial announcement, Delta Airlines and Aircell are kicking off the launch of the first 6 aircraft with inflight Internet access tomorrow.

We have been covering Aircell and their Gogo inflight Internet service for some time now, and I’ve been quite impressed by the speed at which they are getting the equipment installed on aircraft. The first Delta planes with broadband Internet access will be on 5 of the MD-88 shuttle fleet and one 757.

Aircraft with the service can be recognized by a “Wi-Fi hotspot” decal next to the boarding door.

If this good news wasn’t enough to make you happy, Aircell also let me know that access to the service will be free till the end of the year. You’ll find the Gogo Inflight Internet equipped aircraft on Delta Shuttle routes between LaGuardia and Boston, as well as LaGuardia and Washington Reagan. The 757 will be flying regular domestic flights, so make sure to check for that decal!

The current schedule for adding inflight Internet to the Delta fleet is to have 10 aircraft in operation by the end of the year, and to have the entire fleet outfitted by the end of 2009. Once the Delta branded fleet has been outfitted, engineers will begin work on the Northwest Airlines fleet, which is now part of Delta.

2009 is going to be a fantastic year for those of us who need more than an inflight movie to stay entertained, and once Internet is more readily available, I’m convinced that some people may even change their airline loyalty to pick an airline that has invested in this kind of service. So far, 4 airlines have commited to the Aircell Gogo service (American Airlines, Air Canada, Delta/Northwest and Virgin America).

Other tales from the skies
Amazing and insane stories from a real-life flight attendant and co-pilot

Product review – Aircell Gogo inflight Internet on Virgin America.

by Scott Carmichael on

This past Saturday, Gadling participated in a special flight celebrating the launch of inflight Internet on board Virgin America.

During this flight, I worked hard to test every aspect of the service I could. I looked into the kind of products and services many of us use on the road.

The Wi-Fi enabled plane will enter commercial service as a special Thanksgiving surprise for passengers on Virgin America plane N638VA (“My Other Ride Is A Spaceship”).

Internet access for the duration of the flight is $9.95 for flights 3 hours or less, and $12.95 on longer flights. Passengers can connect to the service using 802.11 a/b or g Wi-Fi.

Virgin America plans to have the service available on their entire fleet by the second quarter of 2009, making them the first and only airline in the country with fleet wide Internet service.

Here are the services I put to the test:Web

Needless to say that this part of the service worked just fine. Right after the signal was turned on, I was able to get speeds in excess of 1.5mbps, and the lag was very minimal. As more people started getting online I noticed a slight drop in speed, but even when the entire plane was surfing away, it never became too slow to use for web access.

Secure web sites worked fine, as did connecting through a VPN service, which I’d suggest you do if you plan to connect to stuff you don’t want to share with anyone else on the flight as the Wi-Fi service is unencrypted.

Youtube video streaming

Yes, Youtube worked great. Of course, no amount of high speed Internet in the air will be able to bring talent to those of us without it, so the quality of the content won’t always improve with your altitude.

During the flight we were treated to some fantastic video clips, created for this event including this list of 5 things not to wear at the airport, by Youtube celebrity William Sledd.

Skype

Skype calls worked just fine — the fineprint on this one is that the Gogo service was intentionally left fairly “open” for us, so it is entirely possible that this may not work on the usual commercial flights.

Instant messaging

Instant messaging (using Digsby and Trillian) worked fine. Of course, you’ll have to spend a little time explaining to the folks on the ground exactly where you are. If you are really geeky, you can even use your IM client to chat with people around you, though Virgin America also offer that on the RED inflight entertainment system in every seat.

Email

Email access was a breeze; I got online with Gmail and through my regular email client (Thunderbird) and was able to send and receive my messages. I even received the official press release from Virgin America a few minutes after they sent it (from the seat in front of me).

Music streaming

I fired up my Slacker music player and within about 20 seconds I had a live stream of my own favorite radio station. I minimized the player and enjoyed it in the background while surfing. At no point did I ever hear a stutter or stall in the stream, even after 5 minutes. Of course, this is another service that may or may not be available when the service is live on regular flights.

Slingbox

Those of you hoping to watch some live TV during your flight will be surprised to hear that I was able to connect to my Slingbox and schedule a recording on my Tivo. The video quality is fairly low, but it is certainly usable if you just need to catch up on the latest episode of whatever series you are hooked on.

Portable devices

Of course, a laptop is not the only device that works on the Gogo service. During the flight many people were walking around with their iPhone or Blackberry. I brought my T-Mobile G1 along, and was online in about 30 seconds.

A list of devices tested with the service can be found on the Gogo site.

And finally…

When I was done with my list of things to test, I tried accessing a P2P service (Bittorrent), a porn site and Hulu.com. All of these services worked, but by then the entire plane was using up all the available bandwidth, so none of them worked particularly well. Of course, I also don’t see these services exactly as the kind of thing you’d really need during a flight, but it was good to see that the connection functioned without any restrictions.

The technology (for the geeks)

The Aircell Gogo inflight Internet service uses ground stations based off EVDO Rev.A technology, similar to the broadband services offered by Verizon and Sprint. Each plane has about 3.1mbps to the plane, and 1.8Mbps back to the ground. Unlike previous systems (like the now extinct Boing Connexion system), the Gogo equipment weighs just 125 pounds and can be installed in a single day.

Thanks to Virgin America, Aircell, HP and Youtube!

I’d once again like to thank the fantastic people at Virgin America, their awesome PR team, stunning flight attendants and everyone from Aircell who helped put this event together. And of course, the teams from Youtube and HP, who provided some great inflight entertainment and an assortment of laptops to play with.

My only regret was that I was stuck flying United Airlines back home, and had to settle for a $6 snackbox and no Internet access.