Are Airlines About to Make Your Flight Even More Miserable?
An effort to boost inflight connectivity for the tragically productive might make it harder to sleep through your next business trip, Fool contributor Tim Beyers says in the following video.
What gives? Gogo . The in-flight Internet provider is in discussions to provide its Text & Talk service to commercial airline customers. The list includes some very big names: American,Delta, and United, notably. Several of Gogo's business aviation customers already use the service, Computerworldreports.
Interestingly, the negotiations come on the heels of the FAA's announcement of changes to its device handling policy. No longer are customers required to wait for cruising altitude before using a smartphone or tablet. Adding Text & Talk seems like the logical next step for airlines looking for ways to boost profits, Tim says.
If approved, anyone with a Gogo connection would be free to make Skype or Facetime calls or text via common iOS or Android apps. Thus your next seatmate could, in theory, spend the whole flight chatting away on a conference call. Or carriers could set limits and talk while allowing text. We're too early in the process to know how carriers would offer Gogo Text & Talk, presuming they offer it all.
What can investors expect? Will carriers rush to adopt Gogo's Text & Talk service? Tim answers these questions and more in the video. Please watch now and then leave a comment to let us know what you think.
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The article Are Airlines About to Make Your Flight Even More Miserable? originally appeared on Fool.com.
Fool contributor Tim Beyers is a member of the Motley Fool Rule Breakers stock-picking team and the Motley Fool Supernova Odyssey I mission. He owned shares of Google at the time of publication. Check out Tim's Web home and portfolio holdings, or connect with him on Google+, Tumblr, or Twitter, where he goes by @milehighfool. You can also get his insights delivered directly to your RSS reader.The Motley Fool recommends and owns shares of Google. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools don't all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
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