SA First for Mango

 In a first for South Africa, Wireless G, together with budget airline Mango and cellphone giant Vodacom, have launched Wi-Fi in the sky. By using G-Connect In-Flight Wi-Fi, Mango passengers can now surf the web when travelling between South Africa’s major centres. G-Connect In-Flight Wi-Fi allows for full Internet connectivity on board Mango’s aircraft, including sending and receiving emails, web browsing, and the use of all social networks. An air-to-land SMS service will also be available, managed through a web service.

The service is compatible with most Wi-Fi enabled devices including smartphones, tablets and laptops. There are three different packages on offer. One-Way Access is priced at R50 per single sector flight with a One Day pass available at R90, irrespective of the number of flights completed during a 20-hour period. A per-minute option, billed through G-Connect online account, offers land and air convergence at R1 per minute. All three packages offer unlimited data use during the allotted time. Data-heavy services like YouTube and peer-to-peer downloads will, however, be disallowed. The roll-out of the G-Connect In-Flight Wi-Fi service should see 80% of Mango’s fleet online by the end of June 2012.