Well here I am at 38,000 feet over the Gulf of Mexico continuing my trip to El Salvador after a very tight connection in Atlanta. Unfortunately there is no WiFi available on this flight but as I posted earlier today I had it on my Delta flight from Jacksonville to Atlanta via the GoGo Inflight service.
I think I had the service available to me for about 40 minutes and after a suggestion from one of the folks I follow on Twitter ( @iians ) I ran some SpeedTest.net tests to see what kind of speeds are available on the network.
I ran five separate tests of my connection and used Atlanta as the test server since that is where I was flying to.
Here are the five results:
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That is an average of 1.6Mb/s download and .28Mb/s upload. Not too shabby.
I was able to check my email, RSS feeds, Twitter via Seesmic Desktop, Windows Live Messenger and do general web surfing. I did not have time to try FTP or other protocols to see if they would work or not. No matter as I think the key services you will want to access are those types I listed. Save the heavy duty uploading and downloading for once your back on the ground :-)
Using those services I moved a decent amount of data while online – 4.4 MB up and 48.3 MB down.
The GoGo Inflight service offers to keep a status window open through your Internet browser to help you keep track of your connection status and have quick access to your account. It even senses when your airplane begins its descent and warns you that the connection will terminate below 10,000 feet and to be sure to save your work.
Online Status Window |
Disconnected Status |
Prices for GoGo Inflight Internet service are sold in various tiers:
- $5.95 Single flight up to 1.5 hrs
- $9.95 Single flight 1.5 to 3 hrs
- $12.95 Single flight over 3 hrs
- $12.95 24 Hour pass
- $7.95 Mobile Devices only on flights over 1.5 hrs
- $49.95 30 Day Pass
All of the above packages are for one airline.
Bottom line is that the service is very functional and economically makes a lot of sense on longer haul domestic flights instead of the short ones. If your a real frequent flyer then the 30 day pass may be your perfect travel companion.
I also thought the first time user free access was a terrific offer and allowed a geek like me to try this out. I would have paid the fee and was prepared to do so but the freebie was an unexpected bonus and much appreciated.
GoGo Inflight is available on Twitter at @GoGoInFlight.
I would be very interested to hear of your experience with inflight Internet. Got any tips, deals, etc. to share?
