TECHNOLOGY TIPS - WI-FI IN THE SKY
Delta Airlines announced last week that they will be offering Wi-Fi on all domestic flights by the middle of next year.
The plan is to add Wi-Fi to the fleet of 330 airplanes which is about 60% of Delta's seats. If you are flying smaller planes seating 50-75 people Wi-Fi will not be available.
The service will allow passengers to connect to the Internet via Wi-Fi-enabled smartphones, PDAs and laptops. The cost is $9.95 for flights 3 hours or less and $12.95 for flights longer than 3 hours. Aircell is partnering with Delta to supply the service on-board.
Other airlines including American Airlines, Virgin America and JetBlue have also announced plans to offer similar service. Both American and Virgin will be working with the same technology from Aircell. Virgin plans to offer the Aircell service in the fall, while JetBlue and American are still in testing phase.
U.S. Airways stated it would offer Wi-Fi on a trial basis in the fall on one of its planes. Southwest is using service from Row44 to provide access on 4 planes also on a trial basis. Some other major players including Northwest Airlines, United Airlines and AirTran Airways have no plans at this point to offer in-flight Wi-Fi.
CATHY MALLERS & DEAN'S TEAM CHICAGO
