• USA Today, Tuesday, February 1, 2011 11:50 AM

For the next month, seven top airlines have agreed to offer Facebook on their in-flight Wi-Fi networks for free. As USA Today explains, it's part of a promotion with Gogo Inflight Internet, which presently serves 1,100 commercial aircraft -- or about 3,800 flights a day -- and 5,000 private planes. Promotion aside, the price of Gogo's in-flight service ranges from $4.95 for short flights to $12.95 for longer journeys.

The free Facebook service will be available on North American flights for Virgin America, United Airlines, American Airlines, Delta, AirTran, US Airways and Alaska Airlines. "Those who wish to use services other than Facebook must pay extra," USA Today notes. Virgin, the first airline to launch a Wi-Fi fleet, says up to one-third of its passengers log on to Gogo. "One of its more popular routes, San Francisco to Boston, is called the 'nerd bird' by Virgin crewmembers," according to the newspaper.  Gogo says the most commonly performed task among its users is e-mail. Still,per Amy Cravens, an analyst at market researcher In-Stat, just 7% to 10% of passengers on Wi-Fi-ready planes use the services.  And that number doesn't even include those who buy the services before promptly nodding off.

Read the whole story at USA Today »