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In-Flight Wi-Fi Makes its Debut

Posted by simoniker on from the fly-by-wi-fi dept.

mindless4210 writes "German airline Lufthansa will become the first carrier to provide Boeing's Connexion service to its passengers. The service will be unveiled on May 17 on non-stop flights from Munich to Los Angeles, with plans to outfit their entire fleet over the next year. Passengers will be able to purchase access using their credit cards and Wi-Fi enabled laptops. The cost is set at $30 for the entire flight or $10 for 30 minutes."

7 of 336 comments (clear)

  1. Plane 2 Plane by SirChris · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Any use for plane to plane communications? quickly sending your vital stats, etc. or just as a log of who you have passed.

  2. Interference by RobPiano · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I would love to have wifi on a long flight and $30 isn't completely unreasonable for a flight from Germany to California. This is all fine, but can someone explain to me if we can have wifi on a flight, why can't I have my CD player turned on when the plane first takes off? I've never understood how a CD player could mess with their equipment very much, but I can imagine wifi being a bit of a problem...

  3. stealing the connection by jridley · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I can see people who don't want to pay for the connection sniffing someone's traffic, then cloning their MAC address and surfing for free after the guy switches off.

    1. Re:stealing the connection by Progman3K · · Score: 4, Interesting

      What about proxying?

      If you're flying with office mates, one buys service time, and proxies the other(s).

      --
      I don't know the meaning of the word 'don't' - J
  4. Re:Whole new world.. by frenetic3 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Anyone know what the latency (ping times) would be on the Connexion service? Would it be like satellite (hundreds of ms?) (I know parent was referring to the plane's LAN in which latency is negligible, but what about communications to the rest of the world?)

    -fren

    --
    "Where are we going, and why am I in this handbasket?"
  5. Re:How long by drinkypoo · · Score: 5, Interesting

    put two wifi cards in your laptop and run an open "ap", and everyone with you (or optionally, everyone) can use the service for the price of just you.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  6. Re:Whole new world.. by Shakrai · · Score: 4, Interesting

    mid-air LAN party!!

    I'm sure your just joking around to get your +5 funny FP but in all seriousness why would you pay Lufthansa $30 to have a mid-air LAN party? If you wanted to have a LAN party (not a bad idea on a eight hour+ flight -- I'd do it if I had a few friends tagging along with me) and they allow Wi-Fi on the plane then why not setup your own Ad-Hoc network that doesn't cost you anything? Unless you need access to the Internet (which you won't for a LAN Party) why give them the money?

    That's a pretty interesting idea too. If they are going to allow you to broadcast in the 2.4Ghz range on the airplane then they can't refuse to let you do this. Could be interesting on those long flights. Now your only problem is how long your battery will last :)

    Another (slightly evil) idea would be to have one person buy the Internet access and then share it with the rest of his buddies using a second wireless NIC and the aforementioned ad-hoc network. I wonder if they'd get peeved if you did this? Kinda doubt they'd find out but what's the worst they could do? Boot you off? Something tells me that the crew has better things to do then monitor the Wi-Fi network to make sure you aren't sharing it.

    --
    I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
    We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.