Internet Access in the Sky

Say your flying to a conference, a seminar or a training session. During your trip, you want to check your email or send a message home to your family. Well now, you’re in luck.

In 2006, Aircell won a 10-year contract from the FCC to provide air-to-ground broadband for the airlines. The plan is for each plane to have a standard Wi-Fi network that works with all standard devices (cell phones, laptops, etc).

Aircell's service, called Gogo, has already been rolled out on American Airlines and Virgin and seems likely to become a for-pay feature on the majority of airlines. It uses antennas mounted on the outside of the plane to send a signal to the ground, where it is handled by a dedicated network of cell towers. (The service is only available in the U.S.) With Gogo, you can expect to experience speeds similar to the mobile broadband you experience on the ground.

Email, web, IM service, all your favorite Internet toys are available. However, the connection isn't robust enough yet to provide voice applications. This may be a good thing: Imagine 100 passengers all talking on the phone at the same time. VoIP services are also not currently available.

Gogo has partnered with VeriSign to secure your communications. VeriSign is the leading Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption system used by many of the world’s major banks and financial institutions to secure sensitive financial transactions.

For more information on the service and how to register , visit the Gogo Web site at www.gogoinflight.com.

So if you really need to get some work done the next time you're flying to LA from NY, you can get online. Now, it would be great if we had a place to plug in the laptop.