Wireless Internet Launched on Lufthansa FRA - IAD

JpMaxMan writes "On flight LH 418 from Frankfurt, Germany, to Washington, DC, Lufthansa AG began on Wednesday a three-month trial for a new onboard wireless broadband service that allows travelers to connect to the Internet some 10,000 meters in the sky."

Comments

The thing about airlines that scares me

[Anonymous Coward]

Is that they go through all this trouble to prevent bombs getting on board, yet they act like the plane will crash if I have my CD player on during take-off. Heck, if it could, and I wanted to crash the plane, I'd just turn it on and leave it out of sight!

Re:The thing about airlines that scares me

[Anonymous Coward]

You, as well as most of the public, knows nothing about airplane systems or operations. Electronic devices are *MOST LIKELY* not going to cause the airplane to crash. What they may do is interfere with various navigation systems causing the airplane to go off course. This increases the time of the flight, which increases the cost, which increases the ticket price.

Going off course also creates a safety hazard, in that the airplane may drift into the path of another one. HOWEVER, it is still unlikely that a crash will result as there is both a controller watching the airplanes on a radar (usually), and TCAS on the airplane (often airplaneS) in question which will alert crews to the danger. But you probably don't want to be a passanger when TCAS suddenly commands a descent.

So you're probably not going to crash an airplane with your electronic device, you'll just piss a lot of people off, and the pilot could quite easily have you arrested, as it is a federal offense.

Re:The thing about airlines that scares me

[fiftyfly]

"You, as well as most of the public, knows nothing about airplane systems or operations. Electronic devices are *MOST LIKELY* not going to cause the airplane to crash. What they may do is interfere with various navigation systems causing the airplane to go off course. This increases the time of the flight, which increases the cost, which increases the ticket price."

Riiight, so we're told that environmental radiation on these flights is high enough to be an "occupational hazard" but rather heavily regulated devices in my pocket are going to be a problem for the plane's (hopefully) hardend systems?

Bullshit.

Yeah, I gues I could some items like cell phones/radios maybe eletric motors & other such devices that are very rf "leaky" but there's no way in hell I'm buying that story for, say, a cd player.

I suppose there could be other reasons like "our insurance carrier will kill us if we don't take reasonable precautions to ensure that you at least pretend to pay attention to the (generally usesless - I mean wtf cares what you do if your plane smokes some field at 700km/hr?) safety notices, so please kindly turn the walkman"off". yeah I suppose I could buy that, but that's not what they tell you - they say some babble (and it's never really the same on each flight) about "being found to interfere with electrical systems" or "navigation systions" or "the plane's systems" and never once say anything meaningfull or cite a regulation, or give contact info for those with inquiries or complaints.

Re:The thing about airlines that scares me

[Mister Transistor]

About 30 years ago, IIRC someone turned on a small transistor AM radio during takeoff/landing and the local oscillator in the radio emitted RF on just the right frequency to screw with the onboard Avionics. Since then it spooked the Airline industry, and they have a staunch policy about electronic devices - they don't distingush between a CD player and a radio receiver. Only fairly recently they finally decided laptops aren't radios - although they probably emit more RF than most radio receivers do today anyway, due to high clock speeds.

Re:The thing about airlines that scares me

[Maxwell'sSilverLART]

cite a regulation

My pleasure.

14 CFR 121.306 Portable electronic devices. (a) Except as provided in paragraph (b) of this section, no person may operate, nor may any operator or pilot in command of an aircraft allow the operation of, any portable electronic device on any U.S.-registered civil aircraft operating under this part.
(b) Paragraph (a) of this section does not apply to --
(1) Portable voice recorders;
(2) Hearing aids;
(3) Heart pacemakers;
(4) Electric shavers; or
(5) Any other portable electronic device that the part 119 certificate holder has determined will not cause interference with the navigation or communication system of the aircraft on which it is to be used.
(c) The determination required by paragraph (b)(5) of this section shall be made by that part 119 certificate holder operating the particular device to be used. (Source: Government Printing Office)

Title 14 of the Code of Federal Regulations governes Aeronautics and Space. Part 121 covers scheduled airline operations (parts 135 and 91 cover charter-type operations and all other operations, respectively, and have similar language).

As for a CD player, or a computer, or any other digital device, it does have an RF oscillator: it's called a clock (as in "clock speed"), and most of them are poorly shielded, if shielded at all. Think about it--is your CD player's case made of metal or plastic? I don't feel like retyping (or copying and editing) my previous post on the subject, but if you follow the link, you'll find a much more in-depth explanation.

--Dave Buckles
Commercial Pilot, Airplane Single and Multiengine Land
Instrument Airplane
Flight Instructor--Airplane
Instrument Instructor
2711311 CFII 06/04

Cost and Speed

[Blaine Hilton]

I wonder how much this costs, and I'm assumming its satalite so does that affect pings for online gaming? Fragging from 10,000feet..........

Re:Cost and Speed

[mni12]

Beginning in 2004, the service will cost between 30 (US$32) and 35 per flight. Not bad compared to for example what T-mobile charges at the airports.

pr0n and the very friendly skies

[sugardaddyano]

does this mean i can finally join the solo mile high club?

Re:pr0n and the very friendly skies

[PD]

Sort of a high jack?

great

[Stanley Feinbaum]

I always enjoy surfing the net while high.

risks and advantages?

[thesupraman]

It will be interesting to see how different countried react to this availability onboard - many countried are VERY paranoid about RF gear operating on an airliner due to fear of interferance with the onboard systems...

Personally I'm quite suprised that this is a wireless solution, and not wired onboard, as that would seem a much more 'acceptable' solution worldwide, and quite probably more secure for individuals.

I wonder how well seperated the network streams are between users? network sniffing count suddenly before very interesting ;)

Re:risks and advantages?

[jmt9581]

It will be interesting to see how different countried react to this availability onboard - many countried are VERY paranoid about RF gear operating on an airliner due to fear of interferance with the onboard systems...

The article forgot to mention the thousand miles or so of Cat5e running out of the end of the plane. :)

Re:risks and advantages?

[Ponty]

Don't forget the repeaters with parachutes.

Some day...

[seanadams.com]

Eventually the Internet will become an essential service in any business that's open to the public: malls, airports, schools, bus stops... just like drinking fountains, walkways, and bathrooms.

For the near future though, everyone is going to be trying to figure out how they can charge a few bucks a minute to let people with important business acces their $50/mo DSL line. I hope people just decide not to pay for these services. There's no reason why an airport/airplane/whatever can't afford to give access to a wireless AP just as a courtesy.I would definitely enjoy flying a lot more, and they'd get way more business from me by throwing stuff like this in for free.

Re:Some day...

[Patrick13]

All I can say is that I hope that they have a relatively "techy" crew member on board, because 2 out of 5 people who bring their laptops to my cyber cafe have some sort of weird configuration kink that has to be worked out -- almost always people who have installed the AOL "virus" into their system. Once that POS is in a system it doesn't want to let go.

Also, pre-OSX Macs have to have be manually configured, they can't be autoconfigured by the DHCP server.

Granted, none of this is a big deal for your typical slashdotter, but I am talking about your average business traveler who doesn't know the windows control panel from that stupid blinking banner ad that says "WARNING - Your Computer is not optimized!!!" and then trys to install "Gator" when you click on it.

If not, this is going to fail, because the flight is going to be full of pissed off business & first class passengers who can't get into their law office's exchange server.

In related news

[Chuck Chunder]

The RIAA and MPAA, building upon their already close relationship with law enforcement agencies, are lobbying to give armed air marshalls the power to shoot on sight anyone caught engaging in "terrorist activities" such as file sharing and unauthorised humming.

PRICELESS

[hckrdave]

Ticket: $200
Cab to the airport: $12
Drinks at then lounge: $30
Watching porn @ 600mph feet all wasted: $PRICELESS

now you can spam

[stonebeat.org]

from 10, KM high in the sky (in no man's territory), and be never convicted for it..... Next time i am travling on lufthansa, i am taking my 1 million email address CD with me.

Warchalking (Warflying) Bums in Lear jets

[cyber_rigger]

Now we will see bums in their lear jets
warflying in close formation to the airliners
just to get the free internet access.

:^)

Re:shared connection?

[Jason1729]

Most people aren't going to download large quantities of mp3's or movies while sitting on a plane. They'll do that before they leave.

The service is intended for websurfing. Think about what percentage of time you spend loading pages vs reading them on your high speed connection. Even with 50 people sharing the connection, only a few will be downloading pages at a time, and the rest will be reading what they've already downloaded.

Jason
ProfQuotes

Sample Terrorist IM Log

[Anonymous Coward]

Akmad469GoodTime: R U RDY 4 KILLING????

SexyGirl17Muslim: no meal service yet :(

Akmad469GoodTime: I H8 NUTS!!!

SexyGirl17Muslim: u r nuts!!! LOL!

Akmad469GoodTime: ROFLOLOFLOLFO!!!!!!

Question

[Maxwell'sSilverLART]

As a pilot, and an American, I just have to ask one question:

What the hell is a meter?

Re:Question

[fiftyfly]

it's, roughly, the distance from your head to your ass. Oh wait, sorry - my bad, that would be an _inch_

A Flying Webserver

[Jason1729]

Eventually someone will take their webserver along on the plane and then posts a Slashdot article about it. What happens when we slashdot an airplane?

Jason
ProfQuotes

RF Concerns a Non-Issue

[Foxxz]

Researchers have already bombarded commercial jets with all types of RF of many frequencies and varying power and found no flight threatening effects. This is due to heavely sheilded cables. The electronic device usage fear stems from cellular phone companies advising airlines not to use the phones in flight as they would have difficulting tracking the signal and the signal would reach many towers simultaneously. For the most part, RF is a non-issue. But still comply to keep the paranoid at bay.

Private aircraft on the other hand is more effected by RF than their commercial counter parts. Cell phones and ham radios have been known to crash private aircraft.

A recent story. A local car stereo business installed a TV and sound system in a private aircraft. The FAA was on that like stink on a hog. The equipment was not certified and threw out quite a mess of RF. Not to mention non of the cables were sheilded. Both the pilot and the company who installed the equipment were fined.

I recently received the device that creates the high voltage needed to strobe the lights on an aircraft along with its timer circuit. The device oscilated 24v at high frequency through a transformer and was rectified into two capacitors at 600v. this was creating noise in the radio and the part was promptly removed.

My father is a mechanic and supervisor for a private aircraft repair business. Thats how I get my info on the personal airecraft. I saw the commercial aircraft RF bombardement on Disconvery i beleive.

-Foxxz

Re:RF Concerns a Non-Issue

[nucal]

The electronic device usage fear stems from cellular phone companies advising airlines not to use the phones in flight as they would have difficulting tracking the signal and the signal would reach many towers simultaneously.

I wonder how much of the ban on inflight cell phone use is also designed to force people into using (and paying for) air-to-ground phones installed on airliners.

People are paranoid...

[Cyno01]

You cant even talk about Bombs in an airport, now we're gonna have dorks on planes yelling about their FPS game, "Score, i just got the rocket launcher!!". As if the skymarshals dont have their work cut out for them, now they have to sperate gamers from terrorists.

So now electronics wont crash planes.....

[originalhack]

This finally proves the assertion that the reason for the ban on in-flight electronics was to protect Airfone and in-flight movies from competition and had nothing to do with RF interference. Now that the airlines found a way to extract revenue from this, suddenly spread-spectrum RF signals are perfectly safe.

Turn off your cellphone please. And put away that gameboy.

It's hard to feel sorry for the struggling airlines when lie as much as they do.

Power outlets?

[intermodal]

Let's see some power outlets...I hate how my laptop runs at 1/4 speed off the battery. Then there's long flights to Japan, and the fact that my particular wireless NIC drains my battery way quicker than I care to admit...

Lufthansa cross-atlantic flights are nice...

[Tuxinatorium]

They give you great meals (especially for airplane food), free wine with your dinner, and movies playing all the time. And that wasn't even in first class. It's so cushy, no wonder they're the first to implement that wireless internet on a passenger plane.

Goodbye Airphone -- Hello VoIP

[dracocat]

Great... I wonder if I can use Voice over IP! Seems like the connection is fast enough on the download side at least.. Although I would hate to see 60 people trying to make a phone call on that 128K uplink.

Rendezvous

[TracerJPN_USMC]

Just imagine the possiblities for all the apple users.. load up ichat and look for Rendezvous contacts on the same flight! Maybe you could hook up with a female type you never would have talked to before.

Reminds me of ...

[belbo]

this cartoon

(For all you German challenged people out there, it reads: 'New device found. Device: Airbus A310. Start automatic configuration?')

b.

One detail left out

[HRH King Lerxst]

The broadband service is providec by Connexion by Boeing (sorry it's got flash), the Boeing news release can be found here.

Here's the text from the Boeing news release:

ABOVE THE NORTH ATLANTIC, Jan. 15, 2003 - A new era in inflight communications began today as commercial airline passengers experienced inflight broadband Internet access for the first time. Passengers aboard a Lufthansa German Airlines Boeing 747-400 were able to use their personal laptops and ones provided by the airline to gain high-speed connections to the Internet, including full access to their personal or business email accounts and files. They were able to attach files to their outgoing emails or open attachments from incoming emails, get the latest news, look up information about their destination or shop online. The service, which Lufthansa has branded as FlyNet, is powered by the revolutionary Connexion by Boeing system developed by The Boeing Company (NYSE: BA). During the three-month demonstration, Lufthansa will make the service available free-of-charge to passengers throughout the airplane, which flies daily between Frankfurt and Washington-Dulles International Airport as flights LH 418 (westbound) and LH 419 (eastbound). "With broadband connectivity, the Connexion by Boeing service gives travelers new and unprecedented choices for managing their time in flight and on the ground," said Connexion by Boeing President Scott Carson. "Lufthansa is widely recognized and respected as a leader in innovation, in communication and in customer service, and is demonstrating to its passengers today what the world of tomorrow will be like. Our collaboration with Lufthansa has resulted in the shared vision that has made this historical service available today." "The very idea of FlyNet was exciting, but what really inspired me was the enthusiasm, the professionalism and the stamina of our team during its implementation. Innovation with the customer in mind has resulted in today's world premiere," says Wolfgang Mayrhuber, Deputy Chairman of Deutsche Lufthansa AG. Lufthansa, the inaugural commercial airline customer for Connexion by Boeing, intends to equip approximately 80 long-range Boeing 747-400 and Airbus A330 / A340 jetliners with the Connexion by Boeing service capability beginning in mid-2004. About Connexion by Boeing Connexion by Boeing is a mobile information services provider that is bringing high-speed Internet, data and entertainment connectivity to aircraft in flight. The service currently is available to the executive services market in the U.S., which includes operators of private and government aircraft. The three-month service demonstration with Lufthansa begins in January 2003, followed one month later by a three-month service demonstration with British Airways, scheduled to begin in mid-February. Japan Airlines and Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) also have announced plans to equip longer-range jetliners in their fleets beginning in 2004. For additional information, visit the Connexion by Boeing web site at www.boeing.com/connexion.