Southwest Airlines announced today that it would be testing a satellite-based in-flight Wi-Fi system on one of its flights with the service to go live next Monday. Three other planes are to be equipped by next month, says SWA. But the service will remain in beta for several months.

Here’s the real kicker, folks. The service will be free while it’s being tested. When the service is out of beta, CEO John Guidon says it will cost less than $10/day. And Row 44, the satellite operator based in Westlake Village, CA, says that low price is possible.

Satellite-based service means it’ll work over water unlike Aircell’s service that is limited to over ground use. But without a hands-on test, we won’t know for sure how well this satellite-based service works compared to ground-to-air. Anyone flying on SWA today?

via USA Today