netfishpanda

Greetings from 35000 feet! I just tried calling a friend via Google Voice using fring on gogo. Horrible lag making it unusable. Anyone got better experience using voip over gogo?

chanp

I've never tried it as they state not to. What speed u connecting at right now?

netfishpanda

1.820000000000000062 Mbps (1824 Kbps / 223 kB/s)
Transferred 2816 KB in 12.5999999999999996447286 seconds.

ScottC

Latency will make any VOIP application unusable. And IMHO that is a good thing.

cordelli

I was looking at their FAQ's earlier somewhere over Colorado, and they said something like they watch the bandwidth being used, and the more your computer requests, the lower priority it gets at the router.

There have been many pages saying it's good for a few seconds then starts dropping, etc, probably because the router is cutting them back.

BLI-Flyer

This is wonderful news!

sbm12

As mentioned above it isn't the bandwidth but the lag that generally makes the VOIP and similar applications unusable. That didn't stop the jerk across the aisle from me from using a videoconferencing app for most of the flight last time I was on a gogo flight but it did mean that the connection was probably worse than he wanted.

Ping times from the airplane down to the base station and then out to the other endpoint generally area 100ms+ round trip. Anything over 120ms and VOIP starts to have trouble as a general rule.

Dubai Stu

I will sneak off an echo test or two out curiosity next time I fly, but I'm not interested in talking on the plane. It sounds like a royal pain even with a good connection. You need to talk quietly enough for other passengers not pick up that you are talking on the phone while at the same time loud enough to overtalk the background noise of a flying airplane. It strikes me as an impossible balance.

One thing I would parenthetically note is about half the international flights I fly on have telephone capacity in their in seat systems. One could argue that it is ok to annoy other passengers as long as the airline is making a healthy profit. I suppose one could also argue that $4 a minute is naturally limiter, but you don't know the sales reps I do. "Just expense it." With all due deference to folks in sales, you guys also seem to talk louder than just about everyone else. Perhaps it is just me, but oh well.

Text messaging via Google Voice, however, sounds interesting. Incidentally I presume the prior poster was referring to using Gizmo linkage to Google Voice. To the best of my knowledge, Google's application doesn't currently support VOIP to the best of my knowledge.

I just wish that internet got implemented on the international flights. I'm flying to California in two weeks and expect wifi, but I can't get it to Europe or on my flight across Africa to South Africa in May. With twenty hours in flight time, I would definitely pop on that flight.

While I presume that I will rarely buy in flight internet, I plan on buying in two weeks just to experience it. (I also write a tech column for a trade rag and I'll be able to get an article off of it).

star_world

120ms each way maybe - I have seen many VoIP environments that run well with round trip delay times around the 300ms mark. Over that point it certainly becomes very noticeable.

120ms round trip is fine for VoIP and IP video.

Dubai Stu

I've made plenty of calls in the 300 ms range from Asia. I agree with the assessment. I will generally do a ping on my Asterisk server before placing the call.

I'd love to see a VOIP application which did a bankground check on ping times and gave you an indication as the call was going into the tank. You normally hear a better connection than the person on the other side and have to listen to subtle warnings (such as overtalking each other too much) as a warning when the latency is going into the dive.

206013671

Back in November, I used Gogo on AA from JFK-SFO to do a VOIP call via Microsoft Communicator. I was VPN'd into my corporate network too. Call quality was fabulous... nearly as good as talking on a standard phone. No issues at all and we talked for about 15 minutes.

It was kind of odd though, considering I had my Bose headphones on and I was holding my laptop up closer to my mouth. I was in J, but the guy next to me was looking at me oddly for a few mins.

Dubai Stu

Sounds like you need a lavalier mic.

blueicedtea

is it possible to use onboard wifi to make voice calls?
(such as VOIP service of Skype/Vonage/Google Voice,
which are all installed on my netbook)

assuming it's technically possible, do airlines allow this?

Dubai Stu

It is technically possible to make such calls, but the Gogo does employ blocking technology. It, however, is almost impossible to block an outbound call placed through a VPN. It is contrary to the terms and conditions of the GoGo's agreement and flight crew can certainly order you to stop.

Strangely, it is not contrary to airline rules to dictate on a plane. Someone was doing it the other day. I put on my headphones and didn't worry about it, but I later learned that someone complained to the stewardess who refused to intervene. I'm not sure whether the guy was asked by other passengers or not, but apparently the entire first class section (exception for the folks who had noise canceling headphones) were fairly miffed.

nerd

I used Skype on my iPhone over Gogo a month or so ago. It was just a test call - it would have been too choppy to have a real conversation.