Why should American Airlines and Jet Blue have all the fun? Southwest is getting set to test in-flight Internet access as well.
It’ll partner with Row 44, offering satellite-based access on four different aircraft sometime this summer.
Passengers will have “full access to the Internet” over the “the highest bandwidth available to commercial airlines in the United States,” so we’re getting closer and closer to the guy sitting next to you carrying on a marathon VOIP conversation. Yippee.
According to a press release:
“Southwest Airlines will be the first US carrier to test satellite-delivered broadband Internet access on multiple aircraft. With this innovation, Southwest Customers with a wi-fi enabled device will have full access to the Internet including e-mail, music, shopping, and virtual private networks (VPN) via a high-speed connection. Southwest Airlines is partnering with Southern California-based Row 44 and hopes to begin testing Internet capabilities on four aircraft this summer.”
No word on price, yet. Wouldn’t “free” be nice?
Southwest Airlines Bringing the Internet to the Sky Via Satellite [Press Release] via Wi-Fi Networking News