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FCC to Allow Wireless Access on Planes
isd_glory writes "The FCC has unanimously voted to allow wireless internet connections on airplanes. If everything goes according to plans, airplanes might be offering passengers internet service by as soon as 2006. Furthermore, the FCC is also soliciting comments about the possibility of lifting the in-flight ban on cellphone use. While this could be new profit source for the cash-strapped airlines, it might also be a new way to annoy your neighbor sitting next to you."
it might also be a new way to annoy your nighbor sitting next to you.
This is exactly where it is going to go. This is going to be horrible having to listen to calls like this: "Dude, dude, dude......guess where I am? Hehehe, dude, I am in a plane he he whoooooaaaa dude" your breaking up there.....CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW??? HOW ABOUT NOW????!!!?. Yeah thats exactly what I want. If the airlines want to make people even more crazy in the air they will subject us to stuff like that. Now, if they are smart, they will create cell phone free zones so that everybody does not have to be subjected to the mindless banter that people inflict on others around them.
It might even be a more horrible experience than I had on a flight from Sydney to Australia a couple of months ago with a couple of ecstasy addled passengers in front of me who were mixing alcohol with their e's as well. Those guys would not shut up. Cell phones have the same effect on some folks. They appear to be oblivious to anybody else around them and start the most inane loud conversations obligatorily involving anybody within earshot. All I have to say is that a good investment in Bose noise canceling headsets have been one of the best investments ever and appear to possibly become a necessity when flying.
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...another way to annoy the person next to you...
Jeez, the perfect thing for those long flights comes along, and its every geeks dream, and you are stupid enough to complain about having wireless internet on a plane??? Get a life, even if we nerds don't.
Sig- http://www.dreamhost.com/rewards.cgi?ayefly
I'd rather just have cheap, fast internet access.
Or it will be a reason for them to charge extra for a 'no cell phone class' area of the plane
Why not put a fucking cat5 jack in the back of every seat?
Utterly dumb shit.
Hmmm... but how much will it cost? If talking on a phone is close to to $687/minute, what is internet access going to be? If its cheaper, how long till they realise that people are just going to bypass with VoIP. Or will they be smart and run their own VoIP service and give the handsets an overhaul.
there are bound to be anoyances but i think it coul be usefull, think about it, your traveling and youve foregotten something or you need to arange to meet someone or something.
it allows for last minute communications.
http://my.telegraph.co.uk/dublinclontarf
WTF changed!? (other than the fat contracts I'm sure the carriers have been working out)
I mean, the flight attendants lose all sense of reality if you're caught using a cell phone. I've been on a couple of flights where the flight attendant took the passenger's cell phone after seeing them take a call.
So... what's changed to make it "safe" all of a sudden?
hey dumb @$$ to bad it already exists on Lufthansa's flights to and from the US as well as in Europe
The first court case about the guy sitting next to you who started browsing pr0n about an hour into the flight.
How about No Cell Phone sections on flights?
I think I know the perfect things the airlines could offer. LAN parties. You just bring a laptop (or they could loan you one on selected flights) and you play with the people on the plane with you. I can imagine such a thing taking off, actually. Or they could just offer Internet. *shrug*
US businesses that currently accept chip and PIN/signature
All I have to say is that a good investment in Bose noise canceling headsets have been one of the best investments ever and appear to possibly become a necessity when flying.
Your plug sir, is masterful. Truely, Truely breathtaking.
Wow.
May the Maths Be with you!
Which they will just charge extra for...
There are several technical reasons why cellphones are banned, don't forget. Interference with the instruments in the plane is one thing. The fact that cellphones thousands of feet in the air can "see" a whole bunch of cellphone towers at once poses a problem, too. To solve the problem, they'd probably have to have some sort of localized setup on the plane itself, which requires cooperation from the carriers (they are already arguing about how many carriers should be allowed to compete), which means cellphones on planes might happen when I'm too old to fly anyway. :D
Auto-reply to ACs: "Truly, you have a dizzying intellect."
#unitedflight646 /topic Anyone flying to San Francisco right now?
Online dating, while you're on the plane!
Frienster for specific air flights!
Oh man... this is unleashing a new demon!
Reality is nothing but a collective hunch.
What's the most common way of setting off a bomb these days? A rejigged mobile phone... look at Madrid, for example.
Europe sucks.. who gives a shit about a continent full of fakes and fags?
Just play counter-strike on the airplane in mid-flight. Crank up the volume, have the guns blaring away, then you hear "Hostage down! Hostage down!" I'm sure it will be appreciated.
Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
I just don't fly anymore. I drive. The only trips I have to take are once or twice a year to Dallas or Chicago, which are around a 7 hour drive. By the time I get to the airport 1-2 hours early, then take another 1-2 hours when I get there, to get my luggage, find a cab and get to the hotel, screw it, I'll just drive, and I won't be stuck using a cab to get around. Now add to that these idiots that can't go for a few hours without using their cell phone or laptop, coupled with the way they squeeze you into an airline seat, it's no wonder people don't want to fly.
so I can play Half Life 2 against the other kid in the back of the plane. Then, after I lose, I can browse his netbios shares with Winfingerprint and download all his pr0n. Yep. I could see this really getting popular.
You're probably right. But then they didn't charge for No Smoking section seats way back when. Of course, that could just be because they hadn't thought it.
This would most likely have no benefit to international flights that fly over a long stretch of ocean. I remember a while ago that you could use the the special phone in flight which could read credit cards but the rate was around $15 per minute!! I don't know if all trans-atlantic flights take a very similar route and if would ever be profitable for a cell phone provider to provide signal over that route......
"I got a network! Shit, out of range. I got a network! Shit, out of range. I got a network! Shit, out of range. Bugger."
The passangers actively using the internet will be able to send real time visual info right before their demise.
"FCC is also soliciting comments about the possibility of lifting the in-flight ban on cellphone use"
How fast can you say VoIP? Hell, get teamspeak going on a freaking headset, screw waiting on them to allow phone calls in 2040.
"Sig free in '03!"
Singapore Airlines for one...there are others.
;) (well, a civilian representative of the FAA anyways).
....I'll just say I'm looking forward to reading the public comments on that one.
I'm sure internet will be limited, at least initially, to first and business class. It might actually make it worth upgrading, especially on an international flight, so you could get some work done and collaborate in real time.
This could be good news for me in particular since I generally approve the structual engineering for mods like this for a living. Yes, I'm from the FAA and I'm here to help you
As for cellphones,
A goal is a dream with a deadline
You know.. I'm not exactly a small dude, but I'm not fucking huge either...
And I've found using my 12" iBook to be almost all but impossible in the standard "coach" compartments of most aircraft, with my screen at an angle that is almost unreadable.. And forget about trying to type comfortably. Then, if the asshole in front of me jacks the seat completely back, I might as well pull out a book. If Apple made something along the lines of the Fujitsu P2000 series, or the Sony TRV series, it might be doable...
If you were me, you'd be good lookin'. - six string samurai
First, I like the WiFi, that would be great. The only thing that worries me is that people will start using it for VOIP to get around any anti-cellphone regulations.
Second, the FAA has its own ban on cell phones in airplanes. So even if the FCC says it's OK (which, from a technological/interference point of view it is), the FAA can still keep it banned (like smoking is banned, for example) keeping us all sane in the air.
If the FAA doesn't save us, I suspect that portable cell-phone jammers will become VERY popular among frequent travelers. And how dangerous do you think THOSE unregulated things will be for pilots?
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
This
Some people seem to take pleasure in talking to someone on the phone around complete strangers. They blather on, and sometimes if you stare at them they'll give you a little look that says, "Yeah, I'm so cool - you are helpless but to listen to me! Aren't I fascinating?"
Once I was in a bus from San Francisco airport on the way to a downtown hotel for a SANS. The guy in the seat behind me went on and on to his victim on the other end of the phone about how long the bus was taking. We got stuck in traffic, and he kept going on. He almost lost his life, the first victim of suffocation by cell phone.
My wife was along for the trip. She saved his life.
sigs, as if you care.
How is talking on a phone any more or less annoying than talking to a person sitting next to you?
Then they have the nerve to add a levy because fuel prices are high.
How to make it big: Pass ALL* expenses to consumers, keep profits to yourself. * If you do not have enough expenses, make some up.
it is only after a long journey that you know the strength of the horse.
But thanks.
That seat next to the crying baby is looking better and better already
Teenagers with cell phones suck.
Who needs cell phones on planes now? ;-)
That's why I have an archos. :)
How exactly would this be annoying? We're talkin' about wireless internet. What exactly is annoying about this and what exactly do you have to complain about? The mention of "possible cell phone access in the future" comment was purely to rile people up. Come on. This is a good thing. Deal with it!
yvan eht nioj
How could this be a new profit source? By "this", do you mean the internet connections (I can see how this could get them some profit), or do you mean allowing cell phone calls (which, frankly, I can't figure out how it would be)?
Run out and buy stock in those noise cancelling headphones. I know that I'll be picking some up.
There are TWO bans on using cellphones on an airplane. The FCC ban was instituted to prevent interference with ground users caused by being almost equidistant to several cells at once. The FAA ban was instituted to prevent interference with aircraft systems. The FAA is looking into it, right now no one has scientifically established said interference.
So don't hold your breath. When/if it does happen, you won't be using the cell phone you own now anyway.
Ignorance is the root of all evil.
Lufthansa has about 80 planes with wifi already, they fly to destinations in the US and Germany..
In an effort to save /. a little disk space, could we all agree that Monday's
discussion has already flogged the "in-flight cellphone" horse to death? Yadda yadda "annoying yammering twits", yadda yadda "but I could call my spouse", yadda yadda "all just a conspiracy by the phone company"... Been there, done that, bought the t-shirt.
So let's concentrate on important things, like making WAGs about how much the wi-fi service will cost. And how there'll be annoying twits hogging the bandwidth downloading pr0n at 30K feet, and how useful it'll be to email your spouse to let him/her know the plane is crashing, yadda yadda yadda...
Oh, and most important - we'll need at least one thread about how this will be used by terrorists to coordinate their attacks by IM-ing each other. (No flight article is complete without a terrorist thread.) And another thread about how all the money needed to implement this would be better spent feeding starving squirrels in Bulgaria. Think about the squirrels!
(And yes, it has been a long day... :-)
A marriage is always made up of two people who are prepared to swear that only the other one snores.
Shortly after taking off from Chesterfield-Spirit of Saint Louis Airport, in fog and light snow,
Flight 187 collided head on with the tower leaving 7 dead and 30 injured.
Forensic investigation has revealed that the pilot of the plane had just received an important phone call from his mother-in-law prior to the accident.
thank God the internet isn't a human right.
--; ed
I do not want to be on a plane in solid IFR with a mobile phone that is on. Thats just too damn scary. I don't like the idea of being in a plane where the pilots can't see out the window and the only thing keeping it from flying into the rocks is few radio signals and a few small gyroscopes.
Well, with wireless internet and a headset/microphone and Skype, you have the equivalent of a cell phone anyway. Some of the newest things coming out are "phones" that are basically wireless netportals that use Skype or something like it to let people make calls. It is going to be interesting when someone pulls one of these out on a plane, gets told he can't use cell phones and then tries to explain to the highschool drop out IQ 75 stewardness that the phone isn't really phone even though it rings, you can call out and receive calls on it ...
At least there will not be any RF interferance or anything of that sort. Sure beats configuring that modem to connect to the phone jack in the back of the seat!
_
Free 27" Sony WEGA TV
Nothing shuts up the kids better than computer games etc. Seems to me that inplane internet will make more peace than war.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
Knib High football rules!
does not change 14 CFR 91.21 Portable electronic devices (see link below);
c fr&sid=1d07491ba74d51f531dcb9a0d4dc8f1e&rgn=div5&v iew=text&node=14:2.0.1.3.10&idno=14#14:2.0.1.3.10. 1.4.11
http://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=e
the FCC may say it is ok, but it is still up to the operator of the aircraft (and ultimately the pilot in command) to say whether or not you'll be allowed to use your cell phones on board...
I guess the FCC will also pass a law requiring pilots to use hands-free devices when at the controls?
Can you hear me now?
You're breaking up!
After that we'll discuss if it's annoying or not...
On Amtrak, you can use cel phones all you want. The only catch is that you have to use them in the "cel phone zones", which is their name for the passageways between cars, separated from everybody else by a couple of doors.
I see nothing wrong with allowing cel phones on airplanes, if they do the same thing. Since there's no "passageway between cars" on an airplane, just make up a section in the back of the plane (4rd class?), separated by doors. If you want to chat, go take a seat in the rear, and shut the door on the way.
one person could pay, and provide nat to the rest of the passengers/or coworkers on a flight, for free.. just use a different wifi channel!
http://www4.tomshardware.com/column/20040430/
I tried out a wireless internet connection on a Lufthansa flight a year ago. Has the FCC been preventing this in America?
Everyone keeps freaking out about how annoying this can make plane rides. I don't see this being a problem, really... all this means is that airlines can regulate themselves when it comes to using cell phones on a plane. Maybe airlines will offer cell free flights, or provide "quiet sections" of the cabin where talking on your phone isn't allowed.
Really, if enough people hate being around people on their phones, the airlines themselves will (well, should) provide options for those people to have a more pleasant flight.
When I was working at (insert name of huge network equipment company) on their WiFi, we worked on phased-array SDMA, that stands for space division multiple access. The idea was that you could have a system with lots of nodes moving past a central point, at which was a 2D square conformal array of patch antennas. By varying the phase and amplitude of the signals to each patch antenna element, you could accurately track up to floor((2ln(n))? targets with acceptable crosstalk, where n is the number of patches on a side. This would work awesomely with a plane flying over a bunch of omnidirectional access points with a ventral mounted conformal antenna.
'Be always mindful, even when ditch-digging.' --D. T. Suzuki
I got onboard OK. Are the others ready?
If they still make you turn everything off on take off and landing, nothing at all has changed. People with wifi built into their notbooks have been beaming signals around airplanes without even knowing they have the devices. So goes the world of the clueless.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
just wondering if you have ever tried to use your cell phone and see if it effects any of your IFR instruments. I've tried this a few times(in VFR conditions) and I haven't seen any changes. But of course, I only have me and a few other people to go on.
Since your against it, I was wondering if you might have had an experience or if your just taking the safe route until actual research is done.
I think it would be fun to be able to listen to everyone's else's music for the whole flight. The in-flight music blows, and it's nice to have something new to hear.
iChat Rendezvous is then an option too. I've been on a few flights over the last few years when I wasn't sitting next to colleages and it would have been nice to 'talk'. SubEthaEdit becomes even more useful as well... hrmmm...
In the 200-300,000 miles I have flown, most of which during the time when there were phones on most flights, I used the in-flight phone twice and both times for less than 2 minutes.
...
... I don't think I'll be too annoyed by it if no one is using it. And if someone wants to talk on their phone on the plane it won't be any more annoying than anywhere else.
... great! I'll be able to afford to sink into a nice /. session and tune them out.
Point is, if the airlines charge for WiFi/GSM roaming (and you know that they'll probably be able to do so as I think that both connections will proxy through an in-flight satellite transciever from what I'd heard) at the same exacerbated rate or even -close- to it that they marked up their in-flight phones
Well
And if they make it inexpensive enough that everyone is typing/talking
It is more productive to voice thoughtful opinions (reply) than to judge (moderate) others.
Even though FCC has unanimously voted for cell phone usage on planes, it doesn't mean FAA will will approve it too. It might take years before FAA approves it.
Plus Verizon AirFone has a monopoly and good relations with FAA. What makes you think Verizon would let you do that? They don't want to lose their steady income. There is very small spectrum available for a re-transmitter on a plane. What makes you think Verizon is willing to give that up? You can't have Verizon's Airphone and cell phone working at the sametime, due to spectrum limitation.
Before you get too excited, there will be serious roaming charges even if FAA approves the cell phones. This is again due to the limited spectrum, and one large company monopolizing it.
Consensus is good, but informed dictatorship is better
Since the whiny jerks who think that everyone should modify their behavior to please their over sensiteve personalities are going to cry and whine that "The guy next to me is talking in a public place!!!"
The airlines should just hand out free earplugs. Then the people who are so overly sensitve that human speech irritates them, but are too stupid to bring their own ear plugs, can stop their complaining.
I don't think this will have a big effect on the average passanger due to pricing. There is already WiFi on most airports which is just as usefull for people stuck in transfer for hours. However they charge out of the wazoo. Usually you pay something like $20 for a month, which is useless for someone that's just flying through once.
I suspect the exact same thing will happen with WiFi on airplanes. It will be horribly expensive and not worth to bother with unless you *have to* get online (maybe you forgot to turn of your TCP/IP conected stove or some such).
Failing to learn from history dooms you to repeat it.
that someone's cell phone or WiFi card could bring it down?
i know i wouldn't.
the signal strength of the cell phones is far far less than the signal strength of the cell towers outside the airplane. It doesn't matter which direction the RF is travelling, you know.
If Cell phone frequencies caused problems, we'd see the problem when airports put in a ton more towers to handle the traffic.... and we didn't.
the whole concept of banning cell phones was a Nanny State Program trying to make the uneducated and stupid feel better, and to give the Mrs. Kravits/HOA-types the ability to be pissy at you on the airplane if you leave your cell phone on.
there's no technical reason to prevent users from using cell phones... if the towers can make the connection, then they can. If they can't, they can't.
i bet, more than anything else, that it won't matter a ton because most of the time, people won't be able to make calls at altitude.
guns kill people like spoons make Rosie O'Donnell fat.
I don't know how often all the people bitching about the possiblity of someone next to them actually fly.
In case you were unaware, hurtling through they sky in an aluminum tube with big honking jet engines within 100 feet of you is pretty frickin loud already. If someone is truly being inconsiderate with their phone use inform your flight attendant. They will quickly clamp down on the annoying practices of the few for the sanity of the many.
If you're on a plane you've already consented to being crammed together with 400 other people. You expect quiet? You're an ass. Pay 8 g's for a first class ticket.
When I used to have Nextel, whenver I'd get near a GFCI outlet (those ones with test/reset buttons), it would trip. You could also hear your phone communicate before it rang on any speaker within a 10 feet radius, or see CRT monitors flicker. I hope they study this very carefully, but even with the safety concerns, I don't want to deal with cell phone users in flight.
There is lots of redundancy built into the recievers but all they are doing is comparing the phases of two different signals and moving a needle that shows you how far off course you are. A GPS phone can make that needle jump sometimes but its rare and if the phone can get enough energy into one of the correct spots in the reciever, it can cause offset errors. On the ground before take off, you check that both VORs read within 2 degrees of each other. It turns out that if you miscalibrate both VORs at the same time and take off, you could be 4 degrees off course. When you do an approach into small town airport, the only things you have to make sure your in the right spot are the VORs and a local ADF and if your VORs are off by 5 degrees, you may end up flying into nearby hills or towers.
The Aussie version of the FAA send out a magazine every month and a few months ago they reported a large number of problems with mobile phones (mostly GSM) and a few other bits of equipment. Some of the problems were caused by devices where identical models were known not to cause problems.
I see this myth repeated often. People say that cell phones don't work in airplanes for all kinds of technical reasons.
But if you remember on 9/11, there were a whole bunch of cell phone calls that got through just fine. You don't hear of cell phone calls working on airplanes that often because as current law has it, they aren't allowed. But when people broke the rules in an emergency, they worked just fine.
You, sir, are an idiot. I am not too sensitive. Other people are not sensitive enough. I was once travelling, and of course the lines to check in for the flight were very long. The line was about 150-200 people long, and it was set out so that someone 50 people behind you would be in line to your left, and someone 50 in front to your right. Anyway, as luck would have it I was behind THE stupidest woman EVER. And she had a cell phone. She rambled on and on... Nearly everyone in the line could hear her. She went into great detail about her personal life, completely ignoring the world around her. Then she started talking about her sex life, in great detail no less. There were children in that line, and they could probably hear her (as I mentioned, she was very loud). No, I'm not too sensitive.
I'm sorry.
The description of the FCC decision in the lead-in to this topic is incorrect.
The FCC voted to auction off 4 MHz of spectrum for ground-to-air commercial communications including voice, data, and Internet access.
It's already legal to use Wi-Fi on a plane. Connexion by Boeing just yesterday dramatically expanded its satellite-to-plane service that uses Wi-Fi for distributing it on board. It's now available on some SAS flights, on Lufthansa, and a few other airlines with a number more coming online next year.
The real issue with this decision was to make it affordable to roll out cheaper voice and Internet access on domestic carriers. The satellite-based services have much higher costs and thus less flexibility in pricing.
Freelance tech journalist for the Economist, MIT Technology Review, Macworld, and others
Pack cellphone jammer in carryon bag next time I fly...
/. by next week. Move it geeks, go go go !!!!!!!!!
I expect to see the schematics on
- Adam L. Beberg - The Cosm Project - http://www.mithral.com/
Is it dangerous or not? I thought there was interference problems. What's the ban for then?
Not to mention that leaving a cellphone on while in flight creates that annoying-as-hell clicking noise in your headset... loud enough to drown out ATC.
The last time I lived in the U.S., almost no one had a cell phone. Last time I visited, I finally understood how annoying a lot of people are.
I currently live in Tokyo, and can't quite understand why it's taking so long for Americans (I'm American, btw) to learn their manners.
In Tokyo when the first cell phone boom came along, people talked on the bus, in the train, in restaurants, what not. It was annoying as hell. However, soon the immaturity wore off, there were public ads, and only the rudest of all rude people use cell phones in these locations. When I hear a ring tone in the train, it's almost always followed by a very hushed "Sorry, I'm on the train now. I'll call you back!", rather than a "Hey, wassuuuuuuuup????? Hello? HELLO? Oh, there, I hear you now... oh wait, hello?"
Since everyone has a cell phone, and everyone knows how annoying it can be to hear someone elses conversation, no one seems to break the rule. How come this isn't the case in the U.S. yet? Cultural may be one explanation, but somehow I don't think it's that simple.
Another possibility: It would allow possible terrorists to use cell phones to coordinate their attacks! LeX
Maybe eventually they will let me listen to my CD's while taking off and landing.
I bet they try to charge $3.99 per minute to use the WiFi. Advantages are:
#1, if some business class guy can get his company/the gov't to pay $3.99 a minute, you can just launch an attack, route his traffic thru you and have fun. I would call it skyjacking his connection but that might be a bad term.
#2, if cell phones are allowed and you have a GSM carrier that does data, and you can maintain a connection (since the phone is going to be hopping cells pretty rapidly).... you could undercut Verizon on the plane and offer 25 cent per minute wireless by bridging people to the intarweb via your cell phone.
#3, I'd imagine they will use a web page to allow people to pay. This can't be secure as some dork back near the crapper spoofs the login page. There was a slick hack at defcon where every image became Goatse (probably via Squid proxy). This could be hilarious in-flight.
#4, Plane-sniffing -- 8' dish in your back yard tracking those planes flying overhead on a clear day -- grabbing data from plane passengers? Think it would work?
Has anyone left their cell phone on during flight, and left the phone in diag mode where it shows the current sector antenna / cell site? How often did it change? Nokia and other phones are capable of this.
Southeastern Virginia REPRESENT!
"I don't like the idea of being in a plane where the pilots can't see out the window and the only thing keeping it from flying into the rocks is few radio signals and a few small gyroscopes."
/in a family of pilots
Um, you're a pilot? Funny, but typically trained pilots wouldn't be scared if they're flying under instrument flight rules. That's the point of being IFR certified. You have instruments and you trust them. Nearly all commercial flights, unless the weather is particularly clear, will be flying on instruments. Hell, they use instruments on even the clearest days, just to make certain they stay on the exact flight path as to save time/fuel.
...Sydney to Australia? Are you circling around the airport and landing again? ;)
/. admins please add karma to Funny mods? Half the reason I read /. is for the witty humor, and this forced mod mis-labeling is getting a bit annoying.
Erm, funny, yes, and observant, yes, but not insightful. Oh, right, the Funny mod doesn't give karma points, so we're all subbing Insightful and Interesting for Funny now. Can the
Flying is easy, just throw yourself at the ground and miss. -Douglas Adams
Half the reason I read /. is for the witty humor
... Have you found any?
Yeah me too...
Living in California, you sort of have to, so the smelly illegal immigrants find a reason to find another seat.
(Was going to say "not a troll, trying to be funny", but yeah, I'm probably a troll. Seriously, though, the good people of Mexico who show up in the USA tend to SMELL FUCKING BAD!)
Don't you know? If it hasn't been done by Americans, it doesn't not exist yet.
I'll just bring my boom box and turn up the Weird Al a little louder - I'm sure people won't mind that either.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Now, if they are smart, they will create cell phone free zones
Well, since you fly internationally... wouldn't you consider the ocean a reasonably large cell phone free zone?
Even back on Sept 1, 2001 we had technology which allowed cell phones to place calls from 30,000 feet up.
Im mean sure,the official story back then was that it wasnt possible but we have been told so often about high altitude phone calls being made, that I presume this was true.
If the technology existed back in 2001 and they didnt publicize it, maybe the market wasnt ready?
Dude, you just hit the nail on the head. Thank you.
I support the Center for Consumer Freedom
I thought the same way as you, until I realized how much Soviet Russia/Beowulf Cluster/"In Korea..." crap gets modded up. I then decided that even funny people will have to suffer a bit for the greater good :).
I flyed with Lufthansa a month ago transatlantic in a Boeing 747-400 and there was no wifi (at least in the economic (back of the plane)).
:P
10 hours without Internet!!! I almost died!!!
this is what airplanes will look like later
apple advetisement middle seat
How do you limit wifi to 1st and bussiness class customers?
Though, without inseat power in cattle class its not as much use.
Now I can packet that kid who always seems to sit behind me, kicking my seat. 0wned!
The two major hardware issues are (1) installing an AP in the plane and (2) getting the signal to the plane from the satellite. Now, JetBlue already has hardware installed on every plane to get DirecTV signal. Aren't DirecTV satellites also used for satellite internet?.. So JetBlue might be ahead of the game in terms of hardware readiness. Plus, they already offer free WiFi in their JFK terminal. Wanna bet they will be among the first to offer this?...
I hope they reserve a section of the plane for
"NO CELLPHONES". That way if I want to not be disturbed by the clown next to me on his cell phone I can simply not sit next to him.
(Then again, if I'm flying jet blue I'll have my headphones on while watching the History or SciFi
channel on DTV so I won't hear him anyway).
One thing that was astonishing to me was that the FCC approved WiFi but not cells and that the FCC and media don't understand that doing so enables phoning from an airplane. I'm sure all readers of /. know about VoIP and that many of us have PC based VoIP clients. If they give me WiFI I can make calls from a plane. And, while a WiFi session on a NYC-Tokyo flight is said to be likely to cost $30, I'd get unlimited calling minutes as part of that $30. Want to bet that when they enable cell phones we pay per minute charges and at premium rates???
I suspect that the satellite latencies will make the VoIP experience less than perfect, but I am interested in giving it a try!
WLAN on Lufthansa is available since 2 years, for flights over the atlantic to the US and Canada... :( skype me!!!
And the quality is good everywhere in the aircraft. I was sitting in economy class, and could work without problems. I suspect they have several access points throughout the aircraft.
And in fact, phone calls are possible using VoIP... So annoying your neighbour is already possible
Obviously the answer is to leave +0 funny alone and add a -1 cliche moderation.
or Somebody set up us the bomb!
What you say?
All your cell bases are belong to us!
Take off every Zig.
You know what you doing!
For great justice!
haha.. it will be so much fun to start yelling into my laptop on a flight..
Though i'm sure it would freak people out to have the SIP phone start ringing inflight, just not one of those things you expect to hear on a plane, the standard telephone ring.
Then again fragging at 30000ft could be interesting.
-b
Roaming in the US is not that bad. Sure you don't give coverage off the freeway in North Dakota, but then nobody lives there anyway. (3 people per square mile is a crowd) Go to any airport though and your cell phone will have coverage. I'll bet you don't have much coverage in the deserts of Australia either. (Unless I looked at the wrong web site, you have a lot of uncovered areas)
All the major cities have coverage. All the major airports have coverage.
Yeah, no cell phones, but how long do you think it will take before a businessman's companies' IT dept suggests VoIP in air. Plug a headset into a laptop or PDA w/WiFi, load your favorite VoIP clent (vonage etc.), bam - you got yourself a phone. Tech-savy consumers will also pick up on this.
Yes a "real" cell phone may not be allowed, however you will still have to deal with some prick yelling on a call.
So I call on the soon to be admins of this service. Block all ports not related to Web, e-mail, NNTP, and FTP please. At least there will be some time then before VoIP providers see the potential and create a web-based client.
The DS and PSP both support wireless link play. I was concerned that using wifi on these systems would be banned on planes but that's not a problem anymore.
The FCC isn't in control of what goes on within a plane, that rests with the FAA. The FCC goes to all this trouble to make this announcement, and the FAA could just say "nope, sorry, cell phones are still banned".
They have been hoarding the nuts
No passenger airline in the United States has ever made a profit, except from government handouts. (You can look it up. Allan Sloan's article, Washington Post, sometime in Nov. 2002)
That is why this is suddenly such a Great Idea. We don't know yet which carrier will get the monopoly on carrying these airborne calls, but the airlines will surely get a cut. That is what is behind this, not technical advancement or study.
I have a much more comfortable, civilized ride on a train anyway.
slashdot: A failed experiment.
Being able to make cell calls from the air will be really great for general aviation. Currently there are nifty devices that allow you to patch your cell phone into the intercom system in the airplane, allowing you to make calls via your headsets. However, these are sold with the disclaimer that they are only for use on the ground. It'd sure be nice to be able to call your friends/family from 20 minutes out for a ride from the airport.
Of course, being legally allowed to make calls from altitude is one thing...having this work technically is another. I've heard that digital towers are much better than analog WRT comms at altitude. Indeed, an instructor of mine did ground communication via text messaging while flying students...e.g. "how's weather...lesson still on?". That worked pretty well, whereas voice calls were sketchy (yes, I've tried them).
Although it seems very popular to dread the tyranny of hearing other people talk on their phones on a flight, I just don't see it. And I flew over 15 hours last week. When you're in a situation like that, there are already tons of noises far beyond your control: engine noise, bratty children, screeching infants. I brought ear plugs. A few people having phone conversations aren't going to make the experience any worse, and ear plugs will cancel them even more effectively than the high-pitched baby yelping.
I'm sorry to disagree with you but, while "big honking jet engines within 100 feet" is a necessary part of flying, hearing half-conversations and breathing cigarette smoke is not. When crammed together with 400 others, I'd much rather the 400 others avoid distracting me. Do you really think this makes me an ass?
They used to always say you could only use the cell phones when you were parked at the gate with the door open, but lately a few of the flights I've been on have announced that it's okay to use cell phones (but please remain seated) about 30 seconds after landing, while we were still taxiing.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
I actually find cell phones on public transportation incredibly annoying. The public transportation in Japan has "please do not use mobile phones" on all the subways, and it's infinitely more pleasant.
(Of course, it's infinitely more pleasant for a lot of other reasons too, like running on time down to +/- 15-second accuracy.)
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
Yeah me too... ... Have you found any?
:).
Yup.
I then decided that even funny people will have to suffer a bit for the greater good
Flying is easy, just throw yourself at the ground and miss. -Douglas Adams