TV Answer Man Can
I Watch Netflix or Amazon On a Plane?
By Swanni Follow @SwanniOnTV
Washington, D.C. (February 28, 2013) - Editor's Note: TV's
Answer Man, aka Swanni, takes your questions regarding how to
best use the latest products and services in TV technology. If
you have a question about TV technology, ask TV's Answer Man by
sending an e-mail to
swann@tvpredictions.com
Q. I live in New
York and I'm going on a trip to Los Angeles next week. My plane
has Gogo Wi-Fi so I am planning to watch Netflix and Amazon
Prime streaming during the flight, but a friend told me that I may not be
able to. Do you know what's the deal with Gogo? -- Dick, New
York.
Many flights today do have Gogo's WiFi service, but it will cost
you. A full-day's pass goes for around $15 while a 90 minute
pass will set you back $9. (Gogo does sometimes offer lower
prices for mobile devices; for instance, a full day's mobile
Internet pass cost $9.95 on one recent flight that I was on.)
The service's speed is so-so; nothing to write home about.
But here's the really bad news, Dick. Gogo does not support streaming
video from Netflix or Amazon -- or any other streaming service.
How come? Here's what Gogo says at its web site:
"Streaming video from a website
requires extensive bandwidth and will not work as well on a
plane as it does on the ground."
Of course, there's no way to test that theory, but as I noted
before, Gogo's speech is just so-so - so your show or movie would likely require the occasional or even
frequent rebuffering.
The good news is that Gogo offers its own library of movies, but
it will cost you, too. Movies start at $3.99 while TV episodes
start at 99 cents.
Would Gogo support Netflix or some other streaming service if it
did not sell its own movies? Good question.
