After years of promises, a major U.S. airline has finally delivered inflight broadband internet service. American Airlines' Gogo on AA service debuts today on its fleet of 15 767-200s. For a fee of $12.95, passengers on those planes will be able to e-mail their bosses, check on their EBay auctions, find dates on Match.com, play poker with their buddies and do everything they normally do with a land-based internet connection. The only thing you won't be able to do is use Skype and other VOIP services, but who wants to hear other passengers chatting on the phone anyways.

American plans to test Gogo on the 767-200s for the next few months. If everything goes well they'll roll the service out to the whole fleet. Typical speeds for Gogo clock in at 500Kbps to 600Kbps -- upload speeds were a more modest 250Kbps to 300Kbps. Wall Street Journal Technology Guru Walter Mossberg recently tried out the service and found that it worked flawlessly on his Dell and Apple laptops, a Blackberry, iPhone, and WinMo-based cell.

Other airlines are following in American's footsteps with Southwest on the verge of testing a new satellite-based system. While the carriers are happy to offer their customers a new amenity, they also see the dollar signs. Inflight broadband is expected to generate $6.6 million in passenger revenue this year, according to a June report by MultiMedia Intelligence. The research firm estimates the industry will skyrocket to $936 million revenue by 2012.

We'd guess by 2013 you'll be able to surf the web on every single flight, but for now the service is only available on American Airlines. Soon enough no one will remember the days of 'net-free air flight.

Labels: internet, Travel