Airline Wi-Fi: Gogo better than so-so
Couldn’t resist the Delta Rhythm Boys’ gospel salute to online connectivity for this post on the wonders of Gogo, the new inflight wi-fi service from Aircell.
Lufthansa pioneered airborne Internet in 2003, but Aircell scored FAA approval in 2008 to bring its Gogo inflight Internet service to America’s airlines. Passengers will pay $12.95 on transcontinental flights, $9.95 on shorter hops.
Which airlines offer Gogo?
American Airlines led, but Virgin America and Air Canada are also installing Gogo on selected flights. Delta, however, will offer Gogo on its entire domestic mainline fleet. Aircell expects to have 2,000 aircraft equipped with Gogo by year’s end.
What works with Gogo?
Many PDAs, smartphones and wi-fi-driven devices including…
Laptops running Windows or Mac OS X.
Windows Mobile 6 Professional
Windows Mobile 5 Pocket PC
BlackBerry 8320 and BlackBerry 8820
…and more. Here’s Gogo’s complete list.
What doesn’t Gogo?
Internet phone calls using VoIP applications have not won FCC approval. Skype calls, for instance, drop after a couple of seconds. …any wireless device that doesn’t use its wi-fi when its phone is in airplane mode. (I tried, but couldn’t get my iPhone 3G to connect, though Gogo swears it’s doable and others have done it.)
Logging in? Easy, like buying a wi-fi day pass at Starbucks. “Gogoinflight” appears in your device’s list of accessible wi-fi signals. Log on, pay with your credit card. Gogo says data transmitted on its system is safe, secured by VeriSign.
Just how broad is the band? Connections from passenger seats to the wireless router on board the aircraft measured 54mbps, but how fast is the link between the plane and Aircell’s recently-completed network of ground-based towers? I ran a dozen unscientific speed tests on two flights between New York and L.A. last month using Speedtest.net which reported downloads topping at 1330kpbs, uploads at 320kpbs. Tests run through DSL Reports scored slightly lower.
But there were some speed bumps. Download speeds slowed to 280kbps over Ohio. Otherwise, Gogo easily averaged over 1000kbps with uploads in the 250-300kbps range — plenty of bandwidth for blogging, Twittering, or uploading a PowerPoint presentation you’ve just polished off en route.
Some web apps work, iTunes flopped. Streaming media including YouTube and most internet radio stations played perfectly. BBC Radio 1 streamed live in the background from London for more than an hour via the Beeb’s RealPlayer with only a couple of buffering hiccups, even while I was power-surfing Web sites.
But iTunes was a flop via Gogo — its software choked, podcast downloads proved impossible. iTunes software turned in a 12-hour download estimate for a 27mb episode of This American Life. Gogo says Safari and Internet Explorer are the best-functioning web interfaces for its system. Seems other applications may prove iffy.
Still, Gogo works. Signal continuity appeared seamless as I flew from coast to coast, an amazing media experience, considering the dreadfully off-color VHS print of “Fred Claus” puked onto a screen from a croaking video projector on American Airlines. Just pack plenty of batteries and hope Gogo doesn’t end up gone gone, like GTE’s AirPhone.
Most early adopters I’ve encountered are gaga for Gogo, but a slow stroll through the packed cabin of an American Airlines transcon in December revealed perhaps no more than three dozen passengers logged onto the service.
Yes, it’s still brand new, but Gogo isn’t waitin. Its pitchmen are poised at terminal gates, hawking their wi-fi to anyone carrying a computer. Truth is, the jury’s out on how Gogo parent Aircell will weather a stormy economy, service hundreds of millions of debt, and convince cash-stressed passengers already grumpy over a recent epidemic of airline fees and service cutbacks to pony up for a few hours of Internet access.
Now if American Airlines hadn’t super-shrunk its coach seats so severely that it’s nearly impossible to raise the lid of a laptop on those tiny, cramped tray tables! Grrrr!