Slashdot Mirror
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."
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!
does this mean i can finally join the solo mile high club?
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
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.
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.
Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
Ticket: $200
Cab to the airport: $12
Drinks at then lounge: $30
Watching porn @ 600mph feet all wasted: $PRICELESS
http://www.DaveNet.biz/
Now we will see bums in their lear jets
warflying in close formation to the airliners
just to get the free internet access.
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
Akmad469GoodTime: R U RDY 4 KILLING????
:(
SexyGirl17Muslim: no meal service yet
Akmad469GoodTime: I H8 NUTS!!!
SexyGirl17Muslim: u r nuts!!! LOL!
Akmad469GoodTime: ROFLOLOFLOLFO!!!!!!
As a pilot, and an American, I just have to ask one question:
What the hell is a meter?
Moderate drunk! It's more fun that way!
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
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
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.
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.
(For all you German challenged people out there, it reads: 'New device found. Device: Airbus A310. Start automatic configuration?')
b.
--
"Just believe everything I tell you, and it will all be very, very simple."