American Airlines launches mobile broadband service “Gogo”

American Airlines has launched the mobile broadband service, Gogo provided by Aircell. Customers traveling on American's Boeing 767-200 aircraft can now access complete coast-to-coast coverage on nonstop flights between New York and San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles, and New York and Miami. American, the world's largest airline and founding member of the oneworld  Alliance, and Aircell, the world's leading provider of airborne communications, have joined together to bring the first full inflight broadband service to the U.S. market.

Aircell's Gogo will be available to customers as a fee-based service in all cabins.  Aircell will charge $12.95 on flights more than three hours, which include American's Boeing 767-200 flights.  Each paid Gogo session includes full Internet access. Cell phone and Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) services are not available.

Gogo turns an American Airlines flight into a Wi-Fi hotspot, enabling passengers to surf the Web, check any email, Instant Message, access a corporate VPN, and more.  Once the aircraft has reached 10,000 feet, users can simply turn on their Wi-Fi enabled devices such as laptops, smartphones and PDAs, open their browsers and be directed to the Gogo portal page where they sign up and begin surfing. Gogo is powered by the Aircell air-to-ground (ATG) Broadband System, which runs over Aircell's exclusive nationwide network. Have an opinion on this article? Post your comment below.