iPass (News - Alert) Inc., a provider of enterprise mobility services has announced to introduce its new premium inflight WiFi (News - Alert) subscription service for the iPass Mobile Network customers of the company. With the new service, mobile employees will be able to enjoy online connectivity even when they are traveling via commercial airlines.

The mobile employees at the iPass customers the company will now be able to use Gogo Inflight Internet on more than 825 commercial aircraft with their iPass service. At present, all AirTran Airways and Virgin America flights and select American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, US Airways, United Airlines and Air Canada flights have been offering Gogo to the passengers. Additionally, iPass hopes to add more inflight WiFi services to its network offering throughout the year 2010.

Mobile employees who wish to access the new premium inflight connectivity service don’t need to set up an additional account, enter credit card information or fill out an expense report. To make the things even easier for the enterprises, the services lets them enforce Virtual Private Network or ‘VPN’ and endpoint security policies, generate detailed reports on mobile usage, and receive one consolidated bill for all services used.

The iPass Mobile Network customers can immediately access the Gogo Inflight Internet service, and just have to subscribe to the new premium inflight WiFi service. Customers will be charged on a flat rate basis per user, per flight. The price of the service depends upon the length of the flight, with three price tiers applicable at present including $4.95 for less than 1.5 hours, $9.95 for 1.5 to three hours; and $12.95 for more than three hours.

According to Michal Stewart, Corporate Travel Manager at Sabre, it is important for the company to ensure that its employees have access, when and where they need it, whether at home, in the office or at 30,000 feet. Steward continued that as exciting as inflight WiFi is, it can frequently become an administrative burden for managing a mobile workforce, but by bringing Gogo Inflight Internet to the iPass Mobile Network, the company can now keep tabs on inflight mobility costs and maintain real-time security and policy enforcement at the point of connection.

In the words of Evan Kaplan, President and CEO of iPass, the age of inflight Internet connectivity is here and is a huge productivity win for business travelers who need to stay connected and work securely online while in the air. Kaplan noted that airplanes have been the last bastion of mobile worker downtime and iPass and Gogo Inflight Internet provider Aircell are here to close this gap in a way that meets the simplicity, visibility and control requirements of the enterprise.

In March 2010, iPass Inc (News - Alert). announced that the iPass Open Mobile Platform will now provide out-of-the-box support for the Qualcomm (News - Alert) Incorporated's Gobi embedded-3G module, giving enterprises real-time insight and cost control over data access from corporate laptops and netbooks with embedded 3G capabilities.