Internet Flies, But No Talking Allowed

Broadband comes to the skies for travelers willing to pay $12.95 to keep connected to the Internet, however, there's a couple of things they won't let you do.


When flying certain long domestic routes on American Airlines, a service called GoGo will give you access to the Net from iPhones, Blackberrys, and laptops running 802.11 a/b/g WiFi.

No one should have to be away from Olympic results or an important email because they happen to be a few miles above the ground. International fliers have access to Internet services, but regulatory red tape in the US kept it from being offered widely to domestic travelers.

Airlines wanted Internet service for passengers more than Michael Phelps wanted every medal he could get in the pools in China. Soaring jet fuel prices and other escalating costs have the airlines looking for every scrap of revenue they can get.

Reuters said American Airlines got the green light to offer GoGo's in-flight service. Passengers who may have hoped this would give them a cross-country flight full of VoIP calls will be disappointed; voice calls and cellphone service won't be available.

I don't see anything wrong with allowing voice calls in-flight. The typical domestic air route doesn't offer much in the way of entertainment. As for work, flying is more notable for keeping you away from a more productive place, outside of your MacBook perhaps.

At least the laptop becomes more useful on American, and likely Delta as well in the short term. Such airborne Internet availability will be a test for one particular category of technology: Software as a Service.

If there's ever a time where being one with something like Salesforce.com or Microsoft for their services gains importance, companies like that will shine if fliers find solid access to them from 35,000 feet.

I won't be real surprised to see some clever marketing person with an SaaS property look for a way to hook up with GoGo and offer some kind of partnership deal, perhaps a modest discount on that $12.95 session fee for customers of a given service.