American Airlines tests Wi-Fi service

The friendly skies just got friendlier if you're flying American Airlines. The airline announced it will be turning the Wi-Fi sign on this Wednesday on two flights from New York's John F. Kennedy Airport to Los Angeles. This will be a pleasant surprise to passengers on these two long flights, who will be more than happy to access a free Wi-Fi connection to check email, send instant messages, or just surf the Web on their laptop or smartphone.

This is apparently a one day test, but if everything goes as planned, the airline will launch its Wi-Fi service in future flights from New York to Los Angeles, Miami, and San Francisco. The Internet service called "Gogo" will be provided by Aircell, and once fully launched, passengers will have to pay a small fee of $13.95 for access on long flights (over 3 hours), or $9.95 for shorter flights.

Sounds great, except Walt Mossberg already tested the service and encountered a few problems along the way. He says Gogo is a data-only system that blocks VoIP services and operated at slow speeds similar to a "cellular broadband service or a slow home DSL line," which were noticeable during video streaming or when a lot of people were online.  

Still, I guess it's better than nothing, but let's hope they increase the service's speed if they plan to charge so much for a Wi-Fi signal.