Want to make a VOIP call from 30,000 feet?

Andy Abramson figured out an awesome work around for the alleged VOIP lockout on the American Airlines Wifi service which launched this week. The best part is that it’s pretty damn simple and can be done by anyone once you are connected. Using a new service called Phweet he connected to a Joanna Stern from Laptop Magazine who was in the air using AA’s Gogo Wifi.

Phweet using flash in the browser to connect two twitter users who’d like to have an actual conversation. Instead of exposing a phone number, it enables a VOIP call by connecting tweet’s to the Phweet web service. I actually received a phweet last night on my commute home, but had connectivity issues (thanks for the missing tower in west chester, ATT) so I was unable to try it directly. Signing up for Phweet is simple – just use your existing Twitter credentials.

This is great news for anyone looking to actually use a network connection the way it should be used – open and unrestricted. I really don’t want to hear everyone making phone calls in the air, but at the same time no institution should be restricting how the net is used. I would imagine as a result of this, we are going to see some new VOIP implementations based on flash …

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9 Replies to “Want to make a VOIP call from 30,000 feet?”

  1. Hi Jonathan,
    Thanks for the Phweet mentions! I like your approval of open and unresticted approaches. That's what we wanted to do with Phweet. Open up the opportunity or new conversations without the need to share numbers or what device you are on. Simply click on a name, let them know why you want to talk and send. Note it can be public or private. With public calls the users can share who and what they are talking about. Others can use the same URL smart link to join the call.
    Cheers
    Stuart

  2. seems it's more like a callback service. You don't actually dial a number, but each party clicks a link which directs you both to the same page on which you can have a call.

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