Originally Posted by
jaysona
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.
This isn't correct. VOIP uses a pretty teeny amount of bandwidth. I think it's blocked to avoid annoying everyone else on the plane, and rightly so. On the other hand, GoGo has terrible latency and a reasonable amount of packet loss, so it probably wouldn't work that well anyway.
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.
Yes, flight attendants blame everything on "safety" or "security". It is annoying/ridiculous.