More On Airplanes And Internet

fonixmunkee writes "as a sometimes-traveler for work, and a huge nerd, I am always excited about news like this. it appears that some airlines may start offering internet access next year when you need to get that internet fix at 35,000 feet. I was pleased when they started selling wireless internet in airports, so this is another welcomed suprise for techie travlers. apparently they want to use satellite to get high-speed connections to the planes in the air. pretty cool. " Too bad Northwest isn't going to have it for my DTW -> NRT -> KUL -> PER for CALU.

Comments

I can see the use on transcontinental flights..

[3.5 stripes]

I haven't flown in a while, do they also offer power connections for your laptop?

Cuz a 12+ hour flight wouldn't be very much fun after your backup batteries die.

And remember, the foldable tray will stop your willie from overheating:)

Re:I can see the use on transcontinental flights..

[darkov]

And remember, the foldable tray will stop your willie from overheating:)

But that may be counteracted by the porn you are downloading. The tray is handy either way, though.

Emergency procedures

[Anonymous Coward]

If you commit a crime via the Internet at 30,000 feet over the Pacific Ocean, whose jurisdiction does it fall in?

IPSky

[MosesJones]

A plug for a mate IPSky talks about the market and the issues and is a pretty good starting doc on this sort of stuff from a technical/management perspective. The interesting part of some of these elements is that it enables additional information to the pilots and potentially between planes. Getting the internet to the passengers is relatively simple, combining it with elements like TCAS to reduce the risk of collisions and also to enable less reliance on Air Traffic Controllers in areas where they have no Radar coverage.

Two words - VoIP and Routers...

[jason718]

Inflight internet access, especially at a flat rates, makes me wonder about the potential for using VoIP. If the latency introduced by the satellite connection doesn't completely negate its use, using VoIP software on a laptop connected to the airplane's Internet connection would offer considerably cheaper inflight calls.

Secondly, how long until we see groups of people smuggling on battery powered Linksys (et al) routers. $30 split a few ways is always cheaper...

Re:Two words - VoIP and Routers...

[Surak]

Secondly, how long until we see groups of people smuggling on battery powered Linksys (et al) routers. $30 split a few ways is always cheaper..

It wouldn't be hard. Most of things draw DC from a power brick. RadioShack used to carry a power brick-type thing that would hold batteries in what would normally be the brick. And I imagine that there are or will be other third party solutions such as a rechargeable power brick for using routers with batteries before too long as portable, wireless high speed access becomes more and more important.

Pricing

[tangledweb]

They are talking $30 per leg.

I imagine that at those prices it will go the same way as inseat phones. One of the phone carriers is killing their $5 per minute service because there was on average 1.5 phone calls made per flight.

If you are carrying all that extra weight, you have to be able to get people to buy it or it is just going out backwards.

Re:Pricing

[darkov]

They are talking $30 per leg. I imagine that at those prices it will go the same way as inseat phones.

I dunno about you, but on a long (12-14 hour) international flight, I would happily pay that to relieve the boredom. And if you're travelling on business it's a small expense if it means you can be productive in some way, such as catching up on industry news, the competitors products, whatever. Like other monopoly players, the phone providers just priced themselves out of the market.

Hrm

[houseofmore]

I wonder if streaming porn all the way to Vegas will take the fun out of it once you're there.

In flight movie

[paughsw]

At least if the in flight movie is bad, I can download my own.

Re:Secure?

[UnknownBeetroot]

Wardriving at 30k feet...?

I have this insane vision of you getting a biplane next to this massive Boeing, leaning over with a stick of chalk and scawling symbols on th plane as pilots frantically call air traffic control about a possible hijacking...

Hah, for a second I typed 'Boeing' there as 'Boing'. Kinda... fits.

Re:In flight electronics

[dattaway]

If only they wouldn't think I was a terrorist with my yagi antenna pointed out the window scanning traffic below and surfing other people's sessions...

Re:Operating Frequencys

[Sacarino]

I work for a domestic carrier in the US, and one day while flying jumpseat to get to a conference we had one of the passengers sneak in a call on her cell phone, which somehow got into unsheilded wires and broadcast clear-as-day onto the aircraft's comm gear. It wasn't transmitting from us out to the world, mind you, but we could hear her conversation.

additionally, I've heard that the reason CDRoms and discman players and the like are banned is due to the frequency wandering those things emit when spinning up/down and the interruption it causes with precision approach gear. I dont know how true that is.

Re:It's been done

[Sacarino]

Years later, I was on a plane that still had the system installed (but turned off). The rumor around the office was that it cost $250K to remove the now-dead system from a plane, and the airlines weren't willing to foot the bill, so the dead system stayed in planes for years to come.

Well, sure. All that crap was installed and computed in the zero-fuel weight of the aircraft. In order to remove it, you'd need to pay the mechanics to yank the parts out, drain the fuel (ALL the fuel - in the tanks, the fuel lines, etc), re-weigh the aircraft, resubmit the paperwork to the FAA in order to get the work approved, and possibly repeat a step if the feds dont like something.

Never underestimate the red tape mess the FAA is capable of producing. Such a task could take an aircraft out of service for quite some time. Ask anyone in aviation; a plane that's not flying isn't making you money and could be costing you instead.

Cut off?

[Fuzzypig]

What about when your about to land? They just cut you off mid connection? About to send that document to the office, or in the middle of an important system/database callout fixing session and they just cut you loose! "Sorry about that Boss, I know we had 20,000 clients who couldn't connect for 4 hours, but Delta cut my service halfway through and I couldn't get back in til I got into the airport lounge, after customs, the gift shop, duty free, cavity search, etc!"

Sigh!!

[theprancinghorse]

Now I won't be able to escape from /. anywhere.