Mile High Wi-Fi

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It was only a matter of time before the world's largest airline began offering high speed broadband connectivity during flights. American Airlines has recently announced that they will begin a test-run in 2008 offering Wi-Fi connectivity in-flight for a small fee to anyone interested in the service. In this article we'll take a close look at the service and its possibility for success.

Introduction

This service will mainly be offered on American's Boeing 767-200 airplanes which fly mainly transcontinental routes. American says that if the Wi-Fi is successful on these flights, they will consider adding broadband connectivity to their domestic flights as well.

Boeing 767-200
 

American Airlines feels that there is a need for Wi-Fi during flights, mainly for their
business customers who frequently work while flying. The Executive Vice President of Marketing at American Airlines, Dan Garton, recently said in an American Airlines press release, "This is part of our continuing effort to enhance the travel experience for our customers and meet their evolving needs."  American Airlines hopes that this new technology will help to attract more business travelers to their airline over other airlines which do not offer
Wi-Fi connectivity. 

American Airlines stresses that this is only a test run for 2008, because in-flight
Wi-Fi has failed in the past on other airlines. Boeing launched a similar Wi-Fi campaign back in 2001, which was very unsuccessful, and it eventually failed.  The service provider back then was a company called Connexion who eventually folded back in 2006. 

The service provider who won the FCC auction for about $31 million back in 2006 to become American Airline's provider was a company called AirCell LLC.  They intend to provide American Airline's passengers with DSL speed Wi-Fi connectivity, virtual private network (VPN) security, and e-mail capabilities through Wi-Fi enabled laptops and PDAs all while the passenger is 35,000 feet in the air. There is no doubt that AirCell has a tough task of being able to provide the passengers with a reliable Wi-Fi signal while they are 7 miles above the earth's surface.  They claim that they are up for this tall order.

Next: Who is AirCell LLC? >>
 

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