american airlines

Networks

American Airlines Installing Wi-Fi on 318 Planes

5:59AM Mark Wilson | As of right now, American Airlines has Gogo Wi-Fi on all of 15 planes. Today they’ve announced that 318 more planes will be getting this $US100,000 upgrade…but it will take a few years for the project to be complete. By the time it actually happens, I plan on having internet beamed straight to my soul. It’ll only be 6Mbps, but I’ll really feel the pain of all those cat memes. [LA Times] More »
Online

American Airlines Caves In to Religious Groups’ Pressure, Filters In-Flight Porn

6:20AM Jesus Diaz | I was hoping that American Airlines would stand up against religious groups’ stupid demands, keeping their in-flight online service completely un-filtered. After all, they had great arguments: filtering porn sites will jeopardise the access to legitimate web sites, hindering the usability of their aeroplane wireless network. Not to mention the fact that people wanting to look at naughty bits in airplanes can always watch the porn stored in their computers, mobile phones, and personal multimedia players. The network filtering is not going to change that. Sadly, they now have changed their tune: More »
Networks

Walt Mossberg Reviews GoGo In-Flight Wi-Fi (Verdict: Fast, But Not Fast Enough)

1:18AM Benny Goldman | Walt just tested GoGo, the in-flight Wi-Fi service, on a bunch of laptops and smartphones during a flight from San Francisco to Denver. The service distributes, via Wi-Fi, a high speed mobile phone data signal pointed at airplanes, which Mossy rated at around 600kbps down and 250kbps up. This was quick enough for Walt to browse the web, send emails with iPhone rumour attachments, and talk on IM to his ladies, but it couldn’t keep up with streaming video on Xtube Hulu. Also, VoIP is blocked, and mobile calls aren’t possible either. Still, Mossy thought it did well enough for someone who can’t stay off the grid for a few hours. GoGo costs US$10 for flights under three hours, and US$13 for longer ones. It’ll begin rolling out in the next few weeks on American Airlines, with Virgin soon to follow. [AllThingsD] More »
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American Airlines to Test In-Flight Wi-Fi in 2008

6:30AM Seamus Byrne | Some time in 2008, you may be lucky enough to get on a 767-200 transcontinental American Airlines flight that’s testing the AirCell in-flight broadband service. The wireless net access will be available to all classes—yes, even us poor people—for a price. There will be three antennas outside the plane to transmit your 802.11a/b/g “Lolz im on a plane” messages to your buddies. No word on when this will move to widespread deployment. [AA - Thanks Mike] More »