Row44. That’s the name of the company that plans to bring satellite-delivered Internet access to your laptop while you’re flying from finished New York to phony Los Angeles; everywhere in between, too.
In-flight Internet access isn’t entirely new. Aircell lets you cruise Web sites on Virgin America and American Airlines, but that uses cellular towers so who cares. Only two airlines, Southwest and Alaska, will offer the service initially on select flights, but it’ll be for free. Think of it like as a beta.
Some have pointed out that Row44’s service could be used for pure evil. That is, some guy could use it to talk on Skype the whole flight. May I suggest to the people who find that scenario so disagreeable—Heaven forbid you talk to your loved ones, or to business partners while in the sky—that you get a cheap pair of earbuds? Problem solved.
Nothing about any sort of Internet filtering.
Photo: Flickr
I continue to see news on Row44 w/out solid proof their technology works and is profitable. Once SW and Alaska actually offer it to to flyers will I jump on the Row44 bandwagon. Talk the talk…walk the walk..man.
Well, the fact that these two airlines are going to demo this Row 44 system means it must be up and working.
As for profitability, only time will tell. For ANY of these providers.
Bring it!
well this next week you may start to find feedback, as the first “public” flights will start. i can attest to you, having had the system at my disposal “in flight” for about 6 months now it is pretty awesome. Southwest is finally mounted up and ready to go, it has been difficult to get a plane off-line and down long enough to get the installations done and on-line. having flown every test hour since the first system was mounted, i can tell you it has come a long way and is getting better all the time. so far i have had up to 10 hour long flights without interuption and that isn’t half bad. the system is fast, fun and i stream video to and from all the time, catch up on my missed episodes of the “office” and “prison break” etc. so it’s nice. it will be a few months before you might be lucky enough to get on a flight with the system on it. but be patient we are dealing with the FCC and FAA, not to mention competitors that would rather just as well not see it come to fruition. the system is ready, but the road to get there is a tough one.