Even less than a 150 years ago that would have been impossible. And prior to that communication among normal people could take months.

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[–] 3 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Ok people, how do you get texts in the air? Do you have to buy airplane wifi?

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  • [–] 9 points 9 months ago

    Some airlines now provide different levels of free wifi the entire flight. Some require a free account that can be a pain to setup, some limit the access to specific apps like Whatsapp, and some like Qatar airways give you full high-speed low latency access.

    But wifi on airplanes isn't new, but used to be exclusively paid for slow internet access.

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  • [–] [S] 3 points 9 months ago

    American Airlines is offering free WiFi via AT&T. I also found out if you have WiFi calling enabled you’ll even get phone calls. But that also translates into SMS over WiFi. Baring that, iMessage, Signal, WhatsApp and Messenger all work over WiFi as they don’t need cell service, just internet.

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