Wi-Fi coming to international flights

When United recently announced that it would install inflight Internet on all its mainline aircraft beginning next year, it might not have seemed like a big deal. After all, airlines have had Internet on board for a couple of years now and it has become quite common. This, however, is different. This is the first effort by a U.S. airline to provide Internet on intercontinental flights. You might recognize AirTran, Alaska, American, Delta and Virgin America as airlines that have been aggressively installing Internet aboard their aircraft over the last few years. Those airlines, however, are constrained by geography because of the system they use. All those carriers contract with Gogo to be their Internet provider, and Gogo transmits its signals from the ground: It has stations all over the United States that allow aircraft to connect to the Internet.