Innovation

American Airlines rolled out its new Gogo Inflight Internet services.
Extracts of a chat session  in a plane at 30,000 feet somewhere between San José, CA and Dallas, TX.
- Welcome to Gogo Inflight Internet. Thank you for the opportunity to help you. My name is Alicia. How may I assist you today?
- Hello Alicia. What is the bandwidth of the Gogo network? I’m looking for bps up and down.
- Gogo In-flight Internet delivers speeds similar to a mobile broadband experience on the ground.During the most optimal settings the Gogo service runs, on average, at about 3.2mbps download and 1.7mbps upload. However I must note that the actual speeds you receive will vary based on the number of users on the flight, weather, and the aircrafts location.
- Nice. Is it a ground-based solution? Is there a router pointed down?
- Yes, the signal comes from the ground. There is a video at the Gogo website that can explain how Gogo works.
- Sweet. I will take a look.
- Do you have any more questions for me today?
- I am flying to London in a few weeks. Will Gogo work for the time I am over the US?
- Yes, Gogo will be available over the continental U.S. depending on the airline you are flying.
- Thanks. How many of American’s planes have been equipped with Gogo? I’m looking for a percentage.
- I do not know the percentage, but we are installed on 103 planes.
- What kinds of issues do you most often encounter?

- Some to the most common issues are people not being able to browse or getting an activation error, but we are able to fix both issues.

Gogo : As a service of Aircell LLC, Gogo provides all passengers access to the Internet, email, text messaging and corporate VPNs from the comfort of their seats while airborne. Aircell has been authorized by the FAA and FCC to use cellular frequencies for inflight broadband communications, leading a Wi-Fi revolution 35,000 feet above the ground. Think of it as a mobile hotspot, equipped with twin turbines and 50,000 lbs of thrust.