On Wednesday, carrier American Airlines announced the launch of its in-flight Wi-Fi service for three of its long-haul routes in the United States with plans to expand the service in three to six months depending on the result of the initial launch.

According to Computerworld, the service, which follows similar rollouts by carriers Southwest Airlines, Alaska Airlines, Virgin America and Jet Blue, provides a Wi-Fi network aboard 15 Boeing 767-200 aircraft serving three nonstop routes between New York and San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles and New York and Miami.

While Wednesday's launch aboard the 15 Boeing aircraft was originally intended for July, "tweaks" had to be made to the system, especially to simplify the set up process for users, a spokeswoman said Wednesday.

The service, known as "GoGo", is provided by Aircell LLC and connects each plane's Wi-Fi hot spot to the ground over a 3 MHz signal via 92 cell towers scattered throughout the continental United States.

Users will be able to launch an Internet browser on a Wi-Fi-enabled laptop or other device once a plane reaches 10,000 feet. From there, they'll be directed to a GoGo portal to sign up for service with a credit card. The service will cost US$12.95 for three hours of usage.

Once logged in, users will be able to use a web browser, check e-mail, instant message and access corporate virtual private networks. Unfortunately, users won't be able to use Voice over Internet Protocol programs or any cell service while in the air, the restriction following federal rules forbidding in-flight voice calls.

American issued a statement saying Wi-Fi speeds in-flight will be comparable to mobile broadband on the ground, adding that video downloads during beta tests were similar to ground-based mobile broadband as well.

Stay tuned for additional details as they become available and if you're on a flight that allows this or a similar service, please let us know what you make of it over in the comments or forums.