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Boeing Gets FCC Approval For Broadband Service
lba writes "Boeing's plans to offer broadband on their planes (as in this earlier /. article) gets into the next phase... BBC News has a story about them now getting FCC approval for this project. Protoypes of Connexion, as the service is called, would be installed on Lufthansa planes in about a year. Three US Airline companies canceled their support for the project last November."
Woohoo! Next time some terrorist waltzes through airport security and the passengers kick his ass, we get live streaming video!
Is that the seats will be wider to accomodate the extra wiring and laptop-platform. Of course, all the pictures I've seen of this setup have people turned 90 degrees to the side making it a little hard on the back. Then again, a little lower back pain will go nicely with my carpal tunnel.
It's about time :)
I can't wait... Does anyone know if they'll impliment this on older craft?
------------
Sase
"It's the opposite of that."
I'd rather have the cash-starved airlines investing in the security and maintenance than this.
I don't know if it's just my browser or what, but the photo of three Boeing jets in the article seems a bit corrupted. The lead jet appears to be either burning or mangled right after the trailing edge of the left wing.
In articles about airliners, you'd think that this specific type of compression artifact would be noticed earlier.....
With the coming of broadband to the air abroad, does anyone know what other requirements or rather preventions foreign airlines like Luft has in-flight? Can you use cellphones or GPS or good stuff like that in other countries?
Broadband midflight may actually make voice-over-IP rather interesting competition to those $9.00/min AirPhone calls...
-Barkeep, a draft of your most hazardous brew, for the world is slowly stepping into focus, and I don't like what I see.
canceled their support for the project last November."
Overreaction. As american as Mom, the Flag and Apple Pie. When will the government and business realize that if there's a weakness it's in not having a legacy of assasinating leaders and setting up banana republics, winning no matter the cost.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
If I go on IRC will I see myself getting peer'd often because of a cloud or two? What about latency?
I think I can live without the internet for a few hours.
First lightning fast air travel, then lightning fast internet access. What's next, lightning fast pizza delivery?
"I have not failed. I've simply found 10,000 ways that won't work." --Thomas Edison
How about wireless 802.11 stuff on an airplace too? I would live to be able to wip out the laptop and have inet connection no more listening to that stupid person next to you on the plane.
Though it would be cool to join the "Downloaded and recompiled my kernel mile high" club ... Personally terrorism or not ... I can't stand to be in a plane more than an hour ... but this would be nice ...
I don't see this being in coach at all ... but it is nice to see that you can feel more comfortable when traveling ... to save on installation problems ... using 802.11 would be the best way to go ... and with everything popping up with 802.11 it's about time for notebook users to grab a card anyways ...
Ignore the "p2p is theft" trolls, they're just uninformed
This is Boeing, not American Airlines. Boeing makes planes, not fly them. The guys making the planes make a LOT of money.
Zodiac Survey
I can just see a bunch of headphone'd CS freaks on their laptops screaming at the top of their lungs, "OH YEAH, YOU WANT SOME?! FUCKING DIE! SUCK THE SNOT END OF MY FUCKSTICK YOU PUKE!!"
while the beverage cart rolls by ...
Cheers,
- RLJ
So a group of terrorists can IM each other to coordinate an attack? Flipside would be that I could snap a digital picture of the people in the plane around me, then upload it to checkforthugs.com and get a response letting me know if there are any known terrorists that match any of the passengers in the photo. I guess the capability's been there already with the airphones already in seatbacks, but seriously, is there really a need for this?
If this thing actually works, maybe they should get rid of the cockpit voice/data recorders and just upload all the information off the plane.
In addition to being able to determine the cause of crashes more quickly, it might help ground personel know what is happening with airplanes long before they crash (perhaps helping pilots avoid crashes).
"Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos!"
Conxion probably won't be too happy with them using the name "Connexion" with regards to an Internet service. Lawyers everywhere rejoice.
rooooar
And how?
Boeing is going to install internet connection on their airplanes, and Boeing is still in the business of
A whole new twist on drive-by wireless hackings... War Flying!
"Your superior intellect is no match for our puny weapons!"
"This is your captain speaking. Would whoever is ping flooding the cockpit please stop? I'm trying to telnet to the altimeter and the packets are being dropped. I'm not sure, but I think we are about to hit Mount Rushmore."
Any hint of what this connectivity is going to cost per hour?
;-)
Also, are we ever going to see airline travel deregulated to the point where I can fly Lufthansa from SFO to LGA?
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
Boeing can retrofit the already sold planes with this new tech.. It's not limited to only new planes. This gives them work to do when the airlines stop ordering new planes.
Now they can watch live streaming video, courtesy of cnn.com, of their plane crashing into a building after being hijacked by some sick bastard. Until that happens, it's a great way to pass the time in those cramped cabins.
By the way, I hope it's not connected at all to any of the plane's navigation/communication/control systems...
"What is the sound of one belly slapping?"
We Americans are the most wired country in the world
Can you back that up with a reference?
A quick search tells me that Finland is #1.
Or were you using the term "world" as in "world series" (which apparently means "USA - and maybe Canada occasionally if we're feeling particularly generous")?
Because Boeing will get a cut of the cost charged for internet access using there service...
So we'll soon be able to have high-speed access in the middle of the ocean at 30,000 ft. But yet, my parents in a San Jose suburb are still forced to use a 33k dialup?
Its a weird world....
Tom
Having just spent something in excess of 15 hours on board aircraft these holidays i seriously could have used this.
The obvious thing would be to install airport or other 802.11 stuff (wasn't there an article sometime back about Virgin Atlantic loking to do something like that?) And I know that some airlines are already installing 110 outlets on the bulkheads and such.
LAN party at 30,000 ft!!!!
\Drew National Data Director, John Edwards for President
...everyone using Boeing Wireless in the Southern U.S. is down and using Netzero.
Job? I don't have time to get a job! Who will sit around and bitch about being broke and unemployed then?
Each plane should have its own IRC channel. Could make for some interesting chats:
Even more interesting (legally) is if one of the parties in under 18. As you fly over one state it is legal, fly over the next it isn't, fly over the next it is (again), ... It sure is confusing to live in a police state!
(inside the plane of the future ...)
Stewardess- "Ladies and gentlemen, if you'll please look at the color code bar fastened against your seat backs, you can tell whether you have been seated in your requested section or not. Please recall that all seats with a gold border are regions 1-3, all seats with a silver border are region 4-6, and all seats with slate border are not allowed access. Remember, color denotes permissable access. Red bars denote pornography, blue bars denote warez, green bars denote live video feeds of you looking at the green bars, orange bars denote a block on port 6667, yellow bars denote smoking *and* pornography, and purple bars denote seats not yet installed with broadband access. Also, remember that the color beige does not actually signify anything; that is the color of seatbacks without digital panels. Please do not request assistance on manipulating your seatback. No matter how hard you push, it will not sprout a flat panel display. Thank you for observing all regulations."
I live in the bay area and read recently that CALTRAIN plans to shutdown the railroad system every weekends for TWO years! Reason given: repairs and improvements.
Do you think that they are planning on installing a broadband access in trains too?
I seriously doubt that but since the recent events of downturn economy, uprising traffic and risks in flying have cropped up, train usage has rapidely become popular around here.
They could even use the tracks themselves to carry the signal. And typing on a laptop during an hour commute to the city would make more sense than sitting in a car stupidely behind the wheels.
Ah! I miss Japan.
PPA -- the girl next door.
-- I feel better now. Thanks for asking.
Could someone mind telling me exactly why people need broadband on planes to begin with?
Noone is doing so much downloading that they cannot put it on pause for a few hours.
Hardcore gamers wouldn't use this service either -- signals bouncing from sat to sat to plane rarely provide nice pings.
I might expect someone to say "What about those telecommuters that MUST check in and work while on plane?" -- since that bill would be footed by the boss I DOUBT they would make this mistake more than once. . . and they think airphones are expensive.
Could SOMEONE tell me what an average (or even slightly rare) traveler would need a sweet broadband connection while in the air? Perhaps the other companies pulled out because they couldnt answer this question themselves...
I didn't do it.
the World Series was originally the "New York World Series", named after the "New York World" that sponsored it.
Yes, I know that - and you know that, but how many other people (especially in the US) know that? Everyone I've talked to seems to believe it's because it decides the world's best baseball team.
To paraphrase John Cleese:
One of the things that makes the UK better than the US is that when we hold the world championship for a sport, we invite teams from other countries.
What's to keep a suicidal terrorist from combining a handhelp GPS unit with broadband to reveal the plane's course and location? Maybe this service needs to provide only incoming connections?
but don't have your hopes up yet.
.com business plan. As in, it don't make no sense. To sum it up: we are going get this fast pipe to the airplane and then we are all going to be rich. It sounds an awful lot like the in-seat airphones fiasco in the making. (for those who don't know it: these things have only COST money, which was carried by GTE & AT&T)
.com business plan just doesn't sound good...
I work in the industry, and in fact our product would probably benefit (as in, sold more) if Connexion was available.
I have to say though that it is at the moment mainly vapor. (their demo link uses a satellite dish the size of Washington). I've read a bunch of their documents, and it's surprising how much time they spent on describing silly details and being very vague about how to actually solve the real problems.
Their biggest problem though: they have a
Again, I would love to have a high speed connection to the plane, but there are many problems to overcome. On the less-technical side for example: tech support. Take an office with 300 people all connected to the internet. What kind of staff is needed to support that? Who's going to do that in the airplane? I can guarantee you that it's not going to be the flight attendants. Especially in the US where their union will scream bloody murder over just the slightest increase in workload.
Sorry to be so negative, but the combination of Boeings bureaucracy and a
While filtering may be a diffrent story on in library, what about on a plane? In such a confined space, surely there would be very vocal objections to someone looking up hate sites and pornography in clear few of children, and those why may be offended. This, in my mind, is enough to damper the whole idea. Who, and how would filtering be controlled?
"Addicted to 1Mb/s download rates, former @home customers appear in droves at airports, hoping to get a taste of the high bandwidth connections"
Some technical details can be found in the post that I made when the first item came out in June. At the time, I posted it a bit late, so it missed the usual early Informative modder-uppers and thus stayed in Score:1 oblivion.
One simple rule for its versus it's
"..Yes, stewardess, thats just my laptop's solar panel suction-cupped to the window."
So, if a scruples-challenged marketer SPAMS all of us from 30,000 feet, who has jurisdiction. And you thought anti-SPAM laws were tough to enforce now? :)
heheh, if they put 802.11 in the cabin, get your rooftop servo controlled directional antenna up, 'cause I'm getting my broadband from that spec at 35,000 feet! (damn shielding...:()
Braddock
who has often wondered about bouncing boosted 802.11 off passing aircraft for 100+ mile range.
And you want to sit on a plane with a bunch of microwave transmitters all over? No thanks.
So, instead of the whole idea just being a black pit that Boeing is dropping money into, they are also racking up the expenses on an ad campaign. I wonder how many line workers they are going to have to lay off to pay for this screwed up idea...any guesses?
"It's not a war on drugs, it's a war on personal freedom. Keep that in mind at all times." Bill Hicks
So many people thing airplanes are like movie theatres (although things may have tightened up since 9-11). Personally, I like to buy a box of piping hot Cinnabons and slowly consume them during the first 90 minutes of the flight... The smell makes everyone for 10 rows in both directions think really evil thoughts about me!
Help save the critically endangered Blue Iguana
but I assume this is going to be a pay service. Shell out $X per minute of connectivity, or such.
:)
What's to stop someone from plugging in a laptop, paying for the service, then giving the rest of the plane NAT'ed access via 802.11?
Sorry, us techies just like to spend our time thinking of ways around things like that
--
grep "xercist"
Most of the latest technological advances in in-flight operations have not been confined to first class:
1. laptop power outlets: Not just in first class but also in a wide selection of coach seats.
2. LCD screens: On new 767/777s most airlines have chosen to install the new LCDs on all seats, coach included.
3. Satellite TV: Jetblue doesn't have a first class section, so all seats have LCDs with satellite tv.
4. GTE Airfones: Although much maligned (with reason) these also debuted in coach as well as first.
How could you prosecute a hacker in international airspace? What laws apply?
>>Woohoo! Next time some terrorist
>>waltzes through airport security
>>and the passengers kick his ass,
>> we get live streaming video!
>> -Tackhead
Somebody mod that post up! LOL. Anyway, my contributing point: in addition to a sweet airborne broadband connection, you can enjoy constant onboard surveillance a-la Big Brother. I can't imagine trying to travelling commercial airlines these days AND working on flights. In addition to being terrified the entire time, you can be videoconferencing with the boss, or surfing for pr0n, or watch a DVD movie... The possibilities are endless.
I'm sure that Casino On Net or some other pop-up demon would run betting pools on flights. It can be run against expensive, highly inaccurate face recognition technology. We just don't have enough of that cultural/racial profiling these days.
Better don't get a plane full of geeks playing quake via a gateway portable :o)
or a hackers delight?
--- I am known for the ones who want to find me on the net. Is that a privacy risk or a privilege? One might wonder..
I think the American Airlines (Companies, not company) being onboard says a lot about the current companies. They treat people like cattle unless they pay through the nose. I am lucky enough to be in a city that recently recieved service from JetBlue. I'll be flying them February to FL (havn't flown them yet.) Get this...all seats a leather, with 24(?) channel tv in the seatbacks...no extra cost. Not only that, the tickets are manytimes less than half the cost of their closest competitor out of SYR.
While all the airlines are in the toilet right now, SouthWest and JetBlue are doing the best from what I understand. Isn't that hard to image? The two discount carriers who pride themselves on customer service not being in the shitter when everyone else is!?
Internet (for free) in all the seats would do great things for the US carriers that would install it (highest cost is fuel, not giving customers toys to keep them occupied.) I for one think it may be good for a couple of the major airlines to go belly up.
Sorry this is kind of off topic, but the issue really bugs me.
-Pete
Soccer Goal Plans
Hey boeing, forget the internet access and give me a power outlet to plug my laptop into first!
If a penguin dies in the woods, and nobody is around to hear it, what sound does it make?
They would be much better off to spend the money on security research for airplanes and airports. This service is going to be aimed specifically at business travelers as it is expected to be VERY EXPENSIVE for the average person. I mean come on, think of how much it costs to use the AirPhones right now and just multiply from there. And I just don't see many corporate fliers actually using the service since they already have something similar (email service) FOR FREE in first (business) class on some airlines.
Secondly, the plan right now is to provide network connections only... i.e. Bring Your Own Laptop. Can you imagine the tech support hell this is going to create?
Finally, I don't think 802.11 is an option as it would likely interfere with the aircraft's navigation system.
We would like to request the passenger in seat 17A quit downloading prOn as it is interfering with out radar. While the Navigator is enjoying the pictures, the silcone is interfering with our navigation. And to answer the most asked question, no you can not take the connection to the lavatory with you. Thnak you for flying with us today. Now back to our movie "Airplane"
I'll tell you what - this isn't a troll, but it sure is going to sound like one.
When are we going to see the end of this pathetic obsession for "all things shiny and fast" that we Americans are cursed with. For the love of Jeebus - do we really need to be on the Internet _that_ much?
I would like to see what kind of effect it would have on the average Slashdotter to be without electronic devices for 3 weeks (e.g. camping in Canada). I have a sneaking suspicion that it would leave most of you blubbering in the corner of your tent with a snot bubble hanging out of your nose.
But seriously, this story just reminded me how terribly inconsequential most of the "news" on this site really is. Guess what guys - there is actually more to life than downloading ISOs 30,000 feet about the ground.
[That's the end of my rant. Feel free to mod me into oblivion - I probably deserve it.]
Now I can frag online from 39,000 feet!
-Dave
broadband porn will make the transatlantic flight so much quicker :)
Satanists get good grades too...suspiciously good grades
And who else might happen to have a team that could compete?
I wonder what kind of an impact in-flight internet would have had on the september 11th events. Would suddenly eveery suspect on a plain be looked upon closer the moment some geek had stumbled upon it on the web? Perhaps could it have prevented the second, third, or fourth plain crashes?
I'm certain one plain destroying one building would have had a major impact, but less of one then three buildings hit and a handfull of dead hero's in PA.
Computational Madness in a round package.
Boeing sees this as a way to bring in lots of planes for expensive refits. The problem is that once installed, it will either be every epensive and not used by the cuostmers (like the phones) or cheap where it could pay its self off. Is it wireless in the cabin? With the quality of some of the wan cards, I expect that would be short lived as once a bad card messes up and ADF or VOR. Maybe they will just run ethernet to the seats. Its got the advantage that its cheap and you know who is using it.
I would be willing to pay up to $5/hr for ethernet on a plane but it better be quick. DHCP is fine but its got to be bi-directional so some of the NAT tricks wouldn't work. I would also need power for thouse long trips (LAX->MEL is 17hrs).
The dish network recivers for the Cessna jets are a samll dish (10in?) that have a fast tracker on
them that sits on top of the rudder. Nice little devices.
Now the plane flying over my house can have broadband ... but I cant get it because I am too far from the exchange ... WOW !
So when did the proper spelling of the word 'connexion' become a corporate trademark?
Grr.
- undoware.ca
Now, instead of knifing their way into the cockpit, they can hack into the plane and take over the autopilot, all across a wonderful high bandwidth connection, so they don't need to fret about losing packets.
Or even better, maybe they'll get lucky and the planes will pick some Windows variant to provide the routing, and then the terrorsts can just write worms to do their job for them. If you thought the idea of www.whitehouse.gov being flooded by hundreds of thousands of worms going off at the same time, wait until you suddenly see every single broadband-connected plane drop out of the sky at say, 8:00pm on a Friday evening.
I can't wait to see the sort of terrorism that ensues when *everything* is connected.
Jake
Dating: while( 1 ){ call_girl(); get_rejected(); drink_40(); } return 0;
Well, 'good stuff' like GPS and cells really make the pilots day.
This thread should not be responded to, and not archived.
Utlising information supplied in previous posts, this is not a responsible topic, at least at the momment as I am about to fly tommorow.
See what BBIF really is, a medium that you don't really want or need, i do just fine over my l/top (EESCROW)
Imagine what a crowded 767's radar and internal controls meet with a crowd of 140 peeps decide to send xKHZ through internal systems, via modems, fax, BBFTP you name it, we've seen it.
Remember the scene in die hard 2 with the guy on the cellphone in the toilet?
I recall ALL my flights instruction (before i hit 13) as being, "no electrical or electronic" games/toys/tools of any kind.
If I FLY (as in pilot) today, i NEED to know about any of the suprises BB in the air may bring, and to say anything else is stupid, and def a bad timed precept on boeings part to stat implementing, IMHO of course.
When are we going to see the end of this pathetic obsession for "all things shiny and fast" that we Americans are cursed with. For the love of Jeebus - do we really need to be on the Internet _that_ much?
For the average slashdotter, this is a "Oooh, shiny" sort of thing. Now I can play Counter Strike on the plane! Whooppee! For business travelers, it's an added convenience. A reason to fly one airline over another. Access the the company network over a VPN. Besides, have you ever been on a really long flight? Say, Europe or Aisa from Detroit? I know several business travelers who do one or the other on a regular basis. It's cramped and it takes 10 hours or so. The ability to get some work done or browse a little (porn|slashdot) would be a very welcome diversion.
Why?
Maybe this doesn't occur to many in the geek crowd, but as a bona fide child of parents, I can assure you there will be problems. Are the airlines prepared to bring certified tech support personal onboard to augment the flight attendant (and air ranger) crew? What happens when a man with an 8-year-old Toshiba laptop starts trying to stick an RJ-45 into the external modem? And for people who actually have NICs, what about network settings? Sure, it's easy for you and me to pop into Network Neighborhood and set TCP/IP to DHCP, but try telling 300 passengers that over the PA system after "place the mask over your face before assisting others." It'd be great to have, but I can't conceive it as a reality. If it takes a "Boeing flight test team" to "an e-mail with digital photo attachment," think of how well Mommy and Daddy are going to fare.
-- Nerds on toast in the new millenium
Two more things I have to say... someone said they would be willing to pay $5 for an hour of internet service. Realistically I think you are looking at more like $20 for 10 minutes.
Secondly, about "hacking" the plane and causing it to fall out of the sky... no no no no no. It doesn't work that way. This would be a completely independent system from the on-board avionics system. This is akin to the stuff you see in movies, when some kid cracks a website and ends up taking over NORAD. It's not possible. Different networks.
The so-called broadband airline service will be so slow, and priced so expensively, that you will never want to use it -- kinda like the Wireless Web feature on your cell phone that you never use except when your kids play with the phone and you get a bill for $14 for 3 minutes of Wireless Web... or the time you actually tried to surf the Web with your cell phone, nothing happened, and you got a bill for $17.
They must be making a fortune from the $10/min pay phones nobody ever uses, to come up with this one!
Also, the router boxes will be placed under coach seats in such a way as to cut into your other ankle (the ankle that is not already up against the stereo distribution amp).
"Allah blesses Boeing, the company that puts fast network access inside our weapon of choice."
Bin Laden
There is no way the FAA would EVER allow 802.11x on a plane. The airline industry, is terrified of any kind of wireless communications causing a wreck.
"Politicians are interested in people. Not that this is always a virtue. Fleas are interested in dogs." P.J. O'Rourke
Who cares where the plane is? How would that possibly help a terrorist?
"Politicians are interested in people. Not that this is always a virtue. Fleas are interested in dogs." P.J. O'Rourke
DDOS from 10,000 meters