Remember our Hot Topic last week where we sent a traveler to test Gogo Wi-Fi on a trip to Atlanta? Sounds like things did not go as well on the way back home:

“As I suspected, Gogo doesn’t work perfectly. I’m on the flight back….service is going in and out. We’re somewhere over Kansas and the connection (not the wifi, the connection to the ground) is intermittent…..They handed out free coupon codes when we boarded so there are several people using the internet. Bandwidth when it is working is 700kps down at best compared to over 1.4mps on the last flight. Upload is 200kps. Sort of annoying when you lose the ground connection and don’t really know it until you realize that nothing is happening as opposed to a ground wifi connection where you might see signal strength going down first. Here, the wifi is strong but just no connection to the ground. Some of my email accounts are also having problems authenticating with the servers so email is problematic.”

So readers, that is the other side of the story.

Never missing an opportunity to comment, we thought you might like to hear the one from Grant Sharp, Prez and CEO, WI-SKY Inflight.

“Why the great cover up? Why will no one address the fact of life that 1.3 Mbps will not, cannot, never will serve the complete needs of seasoned, bandwidth-hungry, content-intense inflight Internet users!! Yes, you can get a whopping 1.3Mbps download data rate with a 3G cellular connection (sometimes). Big deal. EVERY heavy Internet user I know says they will not use such a lame data rate as today’s inflight service – it’s a waste of timeAt the WAEA in October we plan to display our end-to-end system. This will be the base station and air-side unit, live and communicating with full back end support (identity server, VPN, splash page, payment interface, QOS, Remote Controlled Network Management, Roaming and Settlement, Subscriber Management and a few other proprietary goodies). We will be able to send you some photos just prior to the show, and you can introduce us as a “what to look for” item. And yes, we will have FCC approval by then (silencing a few of the skeptics). Our air-side box will be in certification process by then, and our first STC will also be in progress for our launch airline. Perhaps by the show, or shortly thereafter, we will be announcing several developments, including the LOI with our launch airline and at least two other airlines (maybe more). There are lots of folks in the industry who are saying “it took my company 18 months to get certified, those Wi-SKY guys won’t be live for years to come.” Others are saying “it took us 3 years to build out a ground network, so Wi-SKY won’t have coverage for years to come.” Well, news flash – they can take a demo flight on an airline in January of 2010, and then the critics will all be still.”

Grant also sent this quote from an aviation notable that you might find interesting.

“By 2011, if not before, the air-to-ground system could provide sufficient bandwidth to support a complete, ground-based IFE system, eliminating the need for a carrier to install any onboard hardware except a connectivity server.” Robert Crandall, former Chairman/CEO American Airlines/AMR, Keynote Executive address,WAEA convention, Long Beach, September 10, 2008

Lastly, we found a fairly good comparison of the domestic Internet providers…check it out! http://dvice.com/archives/2009/08/airline-wi-fi-w.php