We've heard so many different airlines promise in-flight WiFi at this point, you really can't blame us for feeling a little skeptical following JetBlue's recent announcement. Looks like we were wrong, though: unlike those other airlines, JetBlue offered a sneak peek of their in-flight WiFi solution to a few lucky journalists and lo-and-behold: it works! Engadget was on hand for BetaBlue's first journalist-laden voyage and while things didn't work perfectly, the network did work as promised on a limited range of devices. Though they were able to log into Yahoo Messenger and Mail successfully on a Windows laptop and a BlackBerry, they couldn't get it to work on a Windows Mobile 6 device. Even when it was working, however, the network wasn't without its share of flaws. "[O]ne of the main drawbacks of the system...is the fact that the airplane can't help but [hit] a number of dead spots as it orchestrates hand-offs between towers," Engadget writes. "[D]own times are said to be around a minute or less, which isn't huge for non-streaming applications, though it's still somewhat irksome to be chatting in Messenger and have to drop off an average of ten times per cross-country flight."
While JetBlue's in-flight WiFi might not be robust enough to play World of Warcraft online, it should suffice for checking email, briefly IMing folks on the ground and generally keeping in touch. We had the opportunity to fly with Virgin America earlier this year and while their WiFi is still temporarily grounded, we were able to play with their Linux-based, seat back entertainment system and got a glimpse of the kind of advanced functionality that could become widespread with the advent of onboard WiFi. While there's no word yet from JetBlue on when we can expect to see WiFi on commercial flights, it certainly seems like this might be the year that in-flight connectivity takes off.
For more on BetaBlue:
- see this hands-on from Engadget
