Originally Posted by
TheAAdmiral
Currently on a flight ORD-SAN. Fired up Zoom to check in with my wife about the condition of my mother. Was told by FA that using FaceTime, Skye, and Zoom was prohibited due to security reasons. She could not find anything written in the American Way or the Gogo about prohibited use of these services. Given the date, I left it go. There are other communication services, Facebook and email that where ok with this FA. Anyone else having had this happen?
All VoIP and similar services are discouraged due to bandwidth limitations between the plane and the ground - essentially just a 3G cell phone connection. More than 2 or 3 people using VoIP would pretty much saturate the air to ground link.
The line about security was probably said because the FA figured it was easier/simpler to say security vs. it's not permitted due to quality of service reasons, plus most of the flying public won't question anything where "security" is mentioned.
I have used various VoIP type applications that have not been blocked by GoGo yet, but quality has always been poor at best.
We'll have to stick with text chatting for now until the effective cabin air ground interface speed is better than 1998 dial-up speed.
