Gogo Inflight Internet

Gogo Inc is an American provider of communication services on aircraft headquartered in Itasca (Illinois, USA). More than 2,000 aircraft and 6,500 private airplanes were already equipped with the technology.

Offer

Passengers with laptops and other Wi-Fi enabled devices can so go during a flight online. The North American airlines Delta Air Lines, AirTran, Air Canada, Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Frontier Airlines, United Airlines, Virgin America and U.S. Airways offer the service.

Technology

In contrast to other providers or technologies that are built on the services of Gogo primarily not connect to a satellite, rather terrestrial antennas are used for data transmission. The operator advertises a complete coverage in the U.S., and soon in Canada, except in the state of Hawaii. A specially constructed antenna under the plane connects to one of more than 160 transmitters on the ground and change it as soon as it gets out of reach.

This approach is identical to the use of mobile phones while driving in a car or train, where as ever due to the movement of the next station is automatically selected in order to maintain the connection. The technique used is called the operator ATG ( "air to ground "). On board the aircraft, the received signal is converted into WiFi and vice versa.

The connection is not from an altitude of about 10,000 feet (about 3,050 meters) and after release of the pilot activated. The use of the offered service is free of charge and requires registration with a personal account. It can be achieved download speeds from 3.1 to 9.8 Mbps; the available bandwidth is shared among the users.

In addition Gogo also offers satellite-based services, but these are much less common than the described system, but will in future Internet connectivity even when flights outside the coverage areas in the United States allow.