Blogging from 37,000 feet with Delta Airlines

By Wesley Fryer On April 14, 2012 · · 2 Comments

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I’m finally heading home to Oklahoma City from the Mobile Learning 2012 Conference in Phoenix. I missed my connecting flight in Salt Lake last night because of a mechanical delay of an hour and a half departing Arizona. This is the first flight I’ve taken when I’ve successfully used onboard / in-flight wifi, so I thought I’d write a quick post to share how it’s working.

First the pricing. Delta uses GoGo Wireless, and currently the least expensive option is $10 for wifi access during a flight. Since this is almost a two hour flight it seemed like it might be worth it, but I certainly will be more likely to use in-flight wifi services if they are priced more in the $5 range.

I am wondering how many people have sprung for the “all year” option?

In addition to having full access to the paid version of The Wall Street Journal, Delta flights currently offer full access to Amazon.com websites. This adds a new dimension to the “SkyMall” shopping in flight experience, if desired. The AUP also indicates traffic is managed so high bandwidth applications may not work.

I was able to successfully download two apps in flight on my iPad, but it was pretty slow going. One of the apps was “Speed Test,” and my results are below. Reasonable download speed for checking email and reading news, but not enough upstream capacity for anything like Skype or FaceTime.

I was able to check my Skype VoiceMails and use FlipBoard to read news. I’m blogging this with the free WordPress for iOS app, and my screenshot images are uploading reasonably fast as I insert them into the post.

Yet again, “normal” gets redefined. Wifi available in-flight, as it is in our family car on cross-country vacation trips (and even around town) thanks to my cellular mobile hotspot. The ubiquity of Internet access continues to advance, for those on the “connected side” of the digital divide.

Remember to follow Wesley Fryer on Twitter (@wfryer), Facebook and Google+. Also "like" Wesley's Facebook pages for "Speed of Creativity Learning" and his eBook, "Playing with Media." Don't miss Wesley's latest technology integration project, "Mapping Media to the Common Core / Curriculum."

On this day..

http://ideasandthoughts.org Dean Shareski

For shorter flights, they offer a $4.95 option.
Emilie Rinehart

Hi there Wesley Fryer!
I am an EDM310 student at the University of South Alabama. I was assigned to you blog my professor, Dr. Strange. I thought your blog was great and very informative about how technology has developed and grown thus far. I recently got a smartphone so I am now using all of the media that is made available for people. Just this weekend, I had visited New Orleans, LA and I had to use my GPS. Without the GPS, I probably would have ended up in Texas somewhere. So I am pretty dependent on my new smartphone. I love how I can receive and reply to emails from my fellow classmates and my professors. Another APP that I am thrilled to have is Skype. I have always been a fan of the standard Skype that I have on my computer, but now that I have one on my phone, I am set!
Thanks for posting such a lovely post about your trip and your technology uses!
An EDM student at the University of South Alabama
Emilie Rinehart