iPass Adds Aircell's Gogo as Premium Service

Corporate roaming service provider iPass has added Aircell's Gogo Inflight Internet to its premium services: iPass provides access around the world to hotspots, hotel and other Ethernet, and dial-up service to 3,500 corporations, but airspace has evaded it until now. The deal between iPass and Aircell lets iPass resell Gogo service at retail pricing, but provide it on a single bill with the same account login.

This may seem like a small win, but it's another step towards ready mass adoption of inflight Internet service by regular business travelers. Aircell recently announced a fixed monthly subscription--$35 per month for unlimited use across nearly all the planes currently equipped with Gogo.

That monthly pass may seem in conflict with iPass's a la carte pricing, but it's not. Corporations often turn to iPass or its competitors to provide a more regular and accountable price for access without having to have many different monthly recurring accounts that are pooled and managed, or sign up all the frequent travelers for their own plans. On average, individual sessions could be cheaper when centrally billed.

iPass customers typically set up their systems to use a corporate login across iPass locations integrated and authenticated within the enterprise. iPass lets companies set anti-virus, firewall, and VPN policies which are enforced before a login can occur. Centralized electronic billing records allow better expense tracking as well.

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