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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!
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.
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
I have a sneaking suspicion that when it is implemented, it'll wind up in first class -- which most of us almost never get to use. All of the news articles I've seen so far have been implying that this will be a great revolution that will allow us all to check our AOL e-mail at 50,000 feet -- but something tells me that the only people who will get to do that will also be sipping wine and eating caviar while they do it.
However, I also have to say that I'd never expected the US airlines to back out. We Americans are the most wired country in the world, and certainly one of the most gadget-happy -- and our airlines turn their backs on this just when it's literally ready to fly?
Go figure. I have to wonder how much of a "free ride" Lufthansa is going to get now that those who the system may have been built for no longer care about it.
i am a soviet space shuttle
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
And how?
Boeing is going to install internet connection on their airplanes, and Boeing is still in the business of
I'd rather have the cash-starved airlines investing in the security and maintenance than this.
Why do their investments have to be 'either-or'?
I'd rather they invest in security, maintenance, AND improvements like this all at the same time.
"And like that
A whole new twist on drive-by wireless hackings... War Flying!
"Your superior intellect is no match for our puny weapons!"
pronoblem
"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.
I think that might be an over generalization. There is a great disparity between haves and have nots in this country such that it'd be hard to support that claim. Count the palm pilots in rural mississippi or louisiana. If there were a "most wired" or "most gadget-happy" nation, I'd have to give it to Singapore or Japan.
Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known. -- Carl Sagan
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")?
(Way off-topic: I was surprised to find that IRC seems to work just fine with accented characters for the most part; the channel I frequent has a German user, and my copy of mIRC receives his umlauts just fine -- I didn't know it could do that. The MUCKs I use -- a type of MUD -- don't. Neat stuff.)
Now understanding what he's saying? Completely different matter entirely; I don't know much German ...
i am a soviet space shuttle
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
(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.
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
have a sneaking suspicion that when it is implemented, it'll wind up in first class -- which most of us almost never get to use.
If they can make money off of the cattle-class customers by charging them for the service, they'll do it!"Addicted to 1Mb/s download rates, former @home customers appear in droves at airports, hoping to get a taste of the high bandwidth connections"
They get broadband. it costs 50,000,000 but it come with a free jumbo jet!
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
I'd rather have the broadband, and no food. Or just let us bring our own. Why on earth would I need a meal on a 3 hour flight? Do they think that we all need to eat every 2 hours or we die?
so I can frag the guy in first class?
because it would be just as expensive to put in a slower service?
Business traveller that spend many hours on a flight could get some work done?
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
not a whole lot of sams will fire 30,000 feet in the air.
If its on landing or take off, you can see your target.
hell, I guy at the end of an airport with a rifle can bring a plane down on take off.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
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
pronoblem
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.
I actually emailed boeing about this specifically the last time this story was on slashdot and surprisingly got a personal reply from one of their engineers within a week.
He said that they were planning on testing this as a way to back up the voice/data recorders on the plane, but he wasn't sure if this was something that would end up in the final product or not. Limitations etc were still to be determined.
I offered to go to work for them on this very task but surprisingly enough I haven't heard back. ; )
In any case it's quite cool that their engineers were already planning on this pre-9/11.
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?
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.]
So when did the proper spelling of the word 'connexion' become a corporate trademark?
Grr.
- undoware.ca
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?
pronoblem
Last time I stayed at a hotel (Marriott New Orleans), the net connection in the rooms was essentially a PBX-level DSL system, with a DSLAM in the PBX closet. 10 bucks a day (noon to noon), but the neat catch was that you were only billed if you hit port 80 and thus their transparent proxy, which ran you trhough a sign-up process before letting you out. Naturally, it didn't take me long to figure out that I didn't have to deal with this if I just tunneled out via ssh.
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