Virgin America: Air-to-Ground Broadband in 2008

Thu Sep 13, 2007 11:28AM EDT

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I have a flight lined up for next month on Virgin America, and frankly, I can't wait. Power outlets for every seat? Seat-to-seat chat? I'm there. But the Holy Grail of in-flight connectivity is, of course, broadband Net access, and Virgin America execs are finally laying out the road map.

According to Xeni Jardin at Boing Boing, Virgin America is partnering with Net provider AirCell to bring in-flight broadband to all its flights—yep, all of 'em—in 2008. (VA flights have Wi-Fi now, but the access points aren't connected to the Net at large.) Jardin reports that you'll be able to access the broadband network over any Wi-Fi-capable device—or, barring that, over "Red," Virgin America's in-flight entertainment system.

But wait, there's more. One of the coolest features on current Virgin America flights is Red Talk, which lets you text chat with your fellow VA passengers. Once the airline launches its AirCell Broadband service, however, you'll also be able to chat with passengers on any Virgin America flight. Want to ping your pals on the ground? No problem—just log in to your Windows Live, AIM, Yahoo! Messenger, Skype, or Google Talk account to chat with anyone on your buddy list or check your Web mail. Sweet.

So, anyone been on a Virgin America flight lately? Tell us all about it.

Related:
Virgin America launches in-flight, air-to-ground broadband [Boing Boing]

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  • 1 Posted by jhong00_8 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:34PM EDT Report Abuse

    The American Airlines deal is to equip all of a specific class of plane for a trial -- their intra-US long-haul craft. AirCell has said a few times that their installation costs about $100K, and can be installed in a routine maintenance cycle. So with hundreds of planes, American would probably take 1 1/2 years to get fully equipped once they decide to pull the trigger. So Virgin is in a better position to make this a fleet-wide brand promise because they simply have very few initial planes, and all of them will travel long distances. I suspect Virgin's integration of the service across many initial applications will make it very valuable in increasing passenger happiness and return flying. Pure Internet access would be useful to many flyers, but I think to get maximum usage, you have to have fun and absorbing stuff to do. -the Dodge Strut son

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