Flying the Friendly Wi-Fi Skies

“The plane has now reached cruising altitude. Wi-Fi is now enabled.” For the gotta-be-connected-now road warriors and travelers, those will be welcome words from the flight deck.  Surfing at 30,000 feet is now much easier, thanks to Wi-Fi enabled planes. 

As profiled by NYTimes.com Practical Traveler columnist Bob Tedeschi, IM-ing, downloading videos, tweeting, Facebooking, making Skype calls and staying in touch with the office is now much easier.

While not available on every plane, it is no longer a rarity reserved for first-class. 

Tedeschi notes that nearly 33 percent of nearly 2,800 passenger planes are outfitted with Wi-Fi systems.

Delta blogged in June about its 500th install.  A test run by Gizmodo readers showed Delta edged out other carriers for data speed, with downloads of .93 Mbps.

To be sure, in-flight Wi-Fi is cheaper than checking luggage. GoGo (powered by AirCell) offers access based on flight time, starting at $4.95 for a single flight less than 1.5 hours, to $12.95 for flights over three hours (cheaper than a dreaded boxed lunch, if you can find one on a flight anymore).

Service is available on select flights on eight carriers, with more on the way. The service works for Wi-Fi enabled laptops, plus assorted mobile devices (including Droid, Apple’s iPod/iPad, Blackberry, HTC, LG, Treo and more).

While AirCell/GoGo has the lion’s share of Wi-Fi installs, other tech vendors are ramping up efforts as well. A newer tech-vendor entrée to the market is Row 44, serving Southwest.

For travelers whose mantra is “some messages can’t wait,” in-flight Wi-Fi can only be good news, unless of course the passenger in the seat in front of you decides to recline the seat on top of your laptop.