Commercial Airlines Offer Wi-Fi
Many locations provide Wi-Fi access and services including hotels, airports, coffee shops, malls, fast food locations, and more. Now joining the ranks are passenger planes. While the other locations offer Wi-Fi for free, airlines offer wireless networks for a price. So far, in flight wireless service is rather expensive. On a flight consisting of some distance Wi-Fi can cost up to $13 or more, providing up to three hours of wireless service. As greater than one third of all United States passenger aircraft offer wireless, passengers are currently unaware which flights do offer wireless services and they need to discover what type of direct current power adapters they need to utilize the service. Laptop batteries use a large amount of power when connected to Wi-Fi.
Most United States aircraft use Gogo for Wi-Fi services. Gogo is a service from Air Cell. This service is utilized by eight different passenger carriers and is currently available on over mine hundred different aircraft. Southwest Airlines has up to six aircraft that uses Row 44 Inc. Wi-Fi. Southwest Airlines indicates their entire fleet of passenger aircraft will contain Wi-Fi services by the year 2012. Row 44 Wi-Fi obtains signals from orbiting satellites, as Air Cell uses radio towers. Southwest is providing wireless service to approximately fifteen airplanes per month and expect to have all five hundred forty passenger aircraft fitted with wireless services by the first part of 2012. Information detailing Southwest wireless plans can be located on their blog.
Air Cell has most of the passenger aircraft wireless service in the United States, but their service utilizes towers that are ground-based and therefore can only give service within the United States. Row 44 has the ability to provide wireless service all across the globe. Some of the customers of Row 44 include Mango Airlines in South Africa and Norwegian Air Shuttle. Air Cell obtained Alaska Airlines as they were able to put in place wireless capabilities much more quickly than Row 44. Air Cell also has a track record that is proven with other airline carriers.
To provide an idea of the cost of Wi-Fi service within a passenger airline, Air Canada's A319 airline charges $9.95, all of AirTran flights have rates between $4.95 to $12.95, Alaska Airlines will have full fleet wireless service by the end of the year and was free until the end of July, and American Airlines have wireless service on their 767 flights, some of their MD80 flights and soon to be on their 737 flights. Delta Airlines charges between $4.95 to $12.95 on over five hundred of their passenger aircraft, and JetBlue is in their beta blue test of limited access for free. Southwest has six aircraft that is testing prices between $2-$12, and United Airlines has thirteen aircraft traveling transcontinental with wireless capabilities. US Airways had certain A321 aircraft with rates between $4.95 to $12.95, and Virgin American contains the same rates on all of their flights. Customers can visit Air Cell's webpage and sign up for an unlimited wireless subscription $20 for the first month and $35 per month afterwards. Frontier Airlines will also be offering wireless services very soon. Both AirTran Airways and Virgin American provided wireless services throughout their fleet as well is offered this service approximately twelve months ago. Alaska Airlines will join them later in the year and offering wireless services within its entire fleet of passenger aircraft.
Not every carrier of passenger aircraft advertises information about wireless services. Aircraft that do have this service display Wi-Fi stickers inside the aircraft and flight attendants on aircraft containing Wi-Fi services inform passengers once the airplane has ascended above ten thousand feet. Because older aircraft use direct current sockets that are round in shape, passengers can use newer adapters with a cost up to sixty dollars allowing them to connect a three prong plug to the cord it comes with a laptop. As the power consumption of devices that are able to connect to wireless improves, power and outlets will become less of an issue. Newer aircraft usually is equipped with the newer three prong socket. Older aircraft will probably not be retrofitted so they still have the older electrical outlets.
There are approximately one thousand aircraft in the United States that are wireless ready. The only question is the pricing platform. It is estimated it will take another twenty four months or so for wireless capabilities to be included within all United States passenger aircraft. Those who will probably utilize the wireless capabilities the most are business travelers on long flights, as e-mails and other correspondence can be performed when a traveler connects to their company's virtual private network. Casual users may find the wireless pricing scheme to be somewhat expensive. It is estimated that Air Cell pricing is high to decrease the amount of passengers utilize the service within an aircraft. The more people who use the service is inversely proportional to the performance of a wireless network. In the future, it is a possibility wireless capabilities will become a free service to use in first class but charge those individuals flying economy. Even though Wi-Fi can be used within an aircraft, the airlines do not desire and restrict passengers from using voice capabilities as well as chat on their wireless networks. The amount of phone conversations that take place within the aircraft could be disruptive to other passengers and travelers. Air Cell has initiated various procedures and protocols that do not allow the utilization of voice over Internet Protocol.
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