Airplanes have long been an escape from the super-connected world we live in. No texting, no talking and no instant-communication have turned airplanes into veritable havens. But with Gogo’s Text & Talk service that all will change.
Gogo, which provides inflight internet service to airlines, unveiled Text & Talk Friday. The service will allow travelers to receive and make phone calls, as well as send and receive text messages.
Users will purchase and activate a software key and log into the service using the airplane’s Wi-Fi while the phone remains in airplane mode. Calls and texts are sent using the Gogo Biz app.
The emphasis of the app leans toward the texting feature, as Gogo predicts U.S. airlines are still not likely to allow phone calls, NBC reports.
“There is strong demand for this service and the ability to text in flight,” Gogo vice president Brad Jaehn said, according to NBC. “We think a lot of our users will want to have the option to text while in flight.”
The new service launch comes shortly after the FAA announced a lift on the ban of personal electronic devices during takeoff and landing. The FAA still prohibits texting and talking, but Gogo’s service gets around this by using Wi-Fi and providing the service only above 10,000 feet.
According to CNET, when tested the service proved fast and useful for text messaging. Phone calls were “dodgy,” with the connection heavily reliant on the strength of the plane’s Wi-Fi.
While a person sending and receiving text messages (with the phone on silent or vibrate) isn’t very disruptive to nearby fliers, the prospect of being surrounded by people talking on their cell phones for hours on end is incredibly scary.
It doesn’t seem likely that will happen on U.S. flights just yet, but it could be a possibility on international air carriers. With debates in the past about whether airlines should offer special airplane sections for families traveling with small children, planes may one day have to offer quiet or phone-only sections.
(Source: HuffPost)
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7 Responses
can you imagine sitting on a long flight with people talking on their phones? ithink it sbetter this way
do we really want to sit on a flight next to someone yapping away on the phone????
this is why im grateful theres no cell service in the subways..
Oh great. Now I’ll have some yenta next to me yacking the whole flight.
as long as the plane has wife you have long since been able to talk and text inflight via free apps like google voice app if you have a google voice # and with that same google voice # you could make phone calls with apps like grove ip (i think that is the name of the app) that is besides for email and all the IM apps there are today and i am sure that there are more free apps like this
this company will either not make it because people will use the apps i mentioned or they will figure out a way to convince people that theirs is better or by the people that are tech ignorant that never heard of the apps like the ones i mentioned before
It’s very scary and indicative of the kind of society we are now that people can not exist at all without being connected to an electronic device, oy vey!!
Reply to sifsei chachamim:
I agree with you. As lipa schmeltzer says, “Just hang up the phone.”
Geshmak Part of that problem is caused by the airlines themselves.
Older planes used to have many window seats from which I could enjoy watching the countryside go by and the ever changing clouds.
Now modern planes have a more swept wing which crosses most windows now, unless you have thousands of dollars for first class.