Social media and Internet addicts, rejoice! When you board a Southwest Airlines flight sometime early next year, you're going to be able to surf the web via Wi-Fi.
Southwest Airlines is joining Virgin America, American, Delta, United and others in offering Wi-Fi on its flights. The airline just finished its first round of testing on four different aircraft and has decided to roll out Wi-Fi across its entire fleet. In fact, we covered the original tests last year.
The Wi-Fi wil be powered by Row 44, a satellite and broadband service company. This is interesting because Wi-Fi on Delta, American, and Virgin are all powered by rival Aircell.
While everything from YouTube to email was allowed during the test of Southwest's Wi-Fi, you're probably not going to be able to use VoIP, Skype, or video chatting. This is a restriction most airlines place on their Wi-Fi service in order to limit possibly disruptive chatter and noise for its other customers.