Although Southwest Airlines is leading the way for cheap internet access in the air, the company has said that VoIP services will be filtered out.
Offering Wi-Fi at $5 per flight (no matter how long you are in the air), Southwest has a good deal as most competitors charge more - anything up to $13 per flight.
In conjunction with Wi-Fi company Row 44, more than 30 airlines will be equipped with internet access and that number is set to double by the end of the year. Southwest hopes that all 550 aircraft of its fleet will have Wi-Fi by 2013.
Passengers should temper their excitement as currently there is no way to know which Southwest flights have Wi-Fi, unless you can see a small spherical cone on the top of the plane (see pic). And they are not offering any seat plugs for recharging purposes.
Furthermore the company is set against in flight VoIP calling at the moment, although the San Francisco Chronicle believes that VoIP will soon be a regular feature of long and short haul flights in America and across the world.
Jetblue Airways already allows customers to use their smartphones for VoIP calling and other features, while Delta has fleet wide Wi-Fi in partnership with Aircell and Gogo.
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