Virgin America Launches "Gogo" In-Flight Wi-Fi
On Saturday Virgin America launched its Gogo in-flight wi-fi service, showing it off by filing the press release from 35,000 feet, and with the first ever "air-to-ground" video stream to YouTube Live, YouTube's first official real-world user event.
The "fleet" will consist of one wi-fi enabled plane to start, with Virgin saying fleet-wide rollout will be achieved by Q2 2009.
In their press release, Virgin America President and CEO David Cush said:
The "fleet" will consist of one wi-fi enabled plane to start, with Virgin saying fleet-wide rollout will be achieved by Q2 2009.
In their press release, Virgin America President and CEO David Cush said:
"As San Francisco's only hometown airline, we couldn't do less than offer Wi-Fi as a standard option for our tech-savvy guests. With power outlets at every seat, Gogo will turn our planes into Wi-Fi hotspots and home offices in the air. We're proud to team up with two innovative companies -- Aircell and YouTube -- to launch this service with the latest technology, a sense of humor, and of course, an inflight party."Facts about the service:
- No content filtering. Some other airlines have decided to filter content to ensure no porn or other objectionable material is viewing over your neighbor's shoulder
- EV-DO Rev. A connection, 3.6Mbps down / 1.8Mbps up.
- 802.11a/b/g in the plane. But naturally, just as with free wi-fi in a coffee shop, no encryption. Hopefully you know what cautions you should take in that regard.
- Voice and video chat will be blocked, though not on the "beta" flight
- Gogo follows the soon-to-be-familiar across ISPs traffic shaper that monitors for overzealous users. Yep, use too much bandwidth and you get throttled.
