Filed under: Wireless

Check it, Canucks — Air Canada is following in the footsteps of several other airlines by finally taking the plunge on in-flight WiFi. Similar to American Airlines, it has landed a deal with Aircell in order to bring the intarwebz to the friendly skies on select flights. Starting next spring, certain transborder flights from the Great North to the West Coast of America will give passengers the option of hopping online for C$12.95, and Charles McKee, the airline’s vice-president of marketing, has asserted that it has every intention of rolling the service out “across its North American fleet” in the future. Now, if only every other airline would follow suit…

[Via Jaunted]

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Filed under: Transportation, Wireless

You heard right, folks. American Airlines is planning to open up the world wide web to passengers on board an unspecified round-trip flight from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport and Los Angeles. The Gogo service, provided via Aircell, will be free for patrons tomorrow, but will eventually run users $12.95 for flights greater than three hours and $9.95 for trips under said threshold. We’re also told that more trials are expected to get going on flights between New York and San Francisco and New York and Miami, though no time frame is given for when the service would escape the beta stage and hit mass implementation. Additionally, the Gogo system is supposed to “prioritize the flow of data so that passengers downloading movies or large documents won’t prevent other passengers from getting their email,” so don’t expect to use that excuse for not sending in those Q2 close reports.

[Via Jaunted]

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Filed under: Transportation, Wireless

His preeminence, oh lordship, oh liege, (uh hem) Walt Mossberg, just returned from a US test flight on a small business jet equipped with Aircell’s new Gogo WiFi service. He tested multiple devices including Dell and Apple laptops, a Blackberry, iPhone, and WinMo-based cell and found them to all perform flawlessly, albeit, at speeds ranging from 266Kbps to about 1.4Mbps. Typical speeds clocked in at 500Kbps to 600Kbps — upload speeds were a more modest 250Kbps to 300Kbps. Aircell promises a similar experience on large commercial planes with multiple connected devices. These speeds were good enough for Walt to surf the Web and check email (both prioritized on Gogo’s network) as he would in the office but not quite fast enough to deliver smooth video streaming. Fortunately, (or unfortunately depending upon your opinion) the service blocks all VoIP services like Skype. Gogo WiFi will cost $12.95 for flights of three hours or longer, and $9.95 for shorter trips — free for limited access to AA’s website, Frommer’s online travel guides, and select articles from The Wall Street Journal. It’s scheduled to launch next month on American Airline flights between New York and LA, San Francisco, and Miami — it will then head to Virgin America and other airlines if things go well. See Walt’s head talk from the bowels of embedded video after the break.

Continue reading Video: Mossberg reviews, likes Aircell’s Gogo in-flight WiFi

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Filed under: Transportation

During our time on JetBlue’s BetaBlue aircraft, we came away mildly impressed with what was available. Thankfully, the airline isn’t resting on its laurels, and has today announced expanded services for those lucky enough to secure a seat on the connected Airbus A320. By utilizing LiveTV’s Kiteline platform, patrons can now check their Gmail, AOL Mail, Hotmail and Windows Live Mail from the comfort of their seat, and just in case you get bored with that, a “customized in-flight version of Amazon.com” will also be accessible. Yeah, we’re talking really minor updates here, but at least the whole gamut of what’s available is still totally free. Gratis and airlines just don’t go together these days, so it’s certainly a welcome change.

[Via Jaunted]

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Filed under: Laptops, Portable Video, Transportation, Wireless

In another mostly positive step for in-flight entertainment options, Continental Airlines will be rolling out DirecTV along with email and IM service on 225 of its planes starting next January — the majority of its domestic fleet, according to Reuters — although watching some tube will reportedly cost economy passengers six bucks-a-pop. Continental is teaming up with LiveTV on the venture, a subsidiary of JetBlue which also provides that airline with DirecTV, XM, and, more recently, limited Yahoo email and IM services courtesy of its 800MHz bandwidth acquisition. LiveTV will both provide and install a majority of the in-plane hardware in exchange for most of the revenue from economy section TV viewers; the 36 DirecTV channels will be free to first class passengers, and anyone with compatible devices and a Yahoo account can connect to the flying hotspots.

[Via Reuters]

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