Airline In-Flight WiFi Offerings Compared

Even though I’m no road warrior I am a connection junkie. That’s why I’ve been following the inclusion of in-flight WiFi on more and more airlines over the last year with the excitement most people reserve for Christmas morning. Thanks in large part to a push by Virgin, eight airlines now offer in-flight WiFi on at least some of their planes which means, it’s easier than ever to find a flight that will hook you up to your twitter page at 30,000 feet. While there are eight airlines offering WiFi there are actually 3 different companies (Live TV, Row 44 and GoGo) that provide the rather expensive service to airlines and their speeds and abilities vary greatly which prompted dvice to assemble a handy comparison chart for in Flight WiFi.

If you ever wondered what the differences are between carriers then look no further. With a list of pros and cons broken down by provider and by carrier, including prices, dvice’s chart is a must read for anyone who wants to get online in the air. The chart even covers which internet activities are condoned by each carrier and where you can expect to get an iPhone friendly rate. Just don’t expect to recreate Virgin’s Skype call to Oprah; as a matter of cabin courtesy none of carriers or providers will let you use VOIP to call and confirm your hotel reservation. The only question this informative chart doesn’t answer is why it costs the same to connect at 30,000 feet as it does on the Third floor of every conference hotel known to man.

Since this service is in its infancy I’m hopeful that the speeds will increase and in time the in flight access providers will strike a deal with cell phone carriers to let passengers with a cellular data plan get in-flight WiFi for free as a perk for their Verizon or T-Mobile data package.

It’s easy to see why some people might want to use this list as a resource for which airlines to be wary of, especially if their employer wants to invade the last no communication space, but for most of us in-flight WiFi is a welcome passenger. For me, I’m looking forward to giving it a test run the next time I fly. I’m especially enthusiastic since I view anytime spent sitting in between 2 locations as time I could be spending writing and thus making money and informing readers.

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