Wi-Fi Coming on U.S. Domestic Flights

jvptoad writes "The NY Times is reporting that United Airlines has received approval to offer Wi-Fi Internet access on its planes. Although it will be over a year before the service is available, I wonder if this will impact the discussion on cell phone usage in planes (which seems to be centered around the annoyance of people talking loudly on the phone). Add a headset and Skype, and you don't need a cell phone to have loud, annoying phone conversations on an airplane."

Comments

Time for air travellers to learn what mute is

[WillAffleckUW]

Either that or get some good headphones, because if you start playing Duke Nukem on your laptop when I'm sitting next to you, I'll be showing you where the off switch is.

Sorry, your right to infringe on society ends where my eardrums attached to my body stuffed into a seat where your laptop requires you to lower your tray table for the whole flight begins.

And if you don't like it, fly first class.

Re:Time for air travellers to learn what mute is

[JanneM]

Using headphones is of course just common courtesy.

That said: earplugs. Earplugs, earplugs earplugs.

Not because people perhaps sit on the phone, and not because people will sometimes talk to each other. Not even for the guy snoring loudly throughout the flight or for the two-year old who's screaming himself across the pacific ocean.

An airplane cabin is _noisy_. That constant whine/hum/hiss is the single most tiring noise I know of. True, you conciously tune it out after half an hour or so, but it's incredibly fatiguing. For a long time I didn't realize that a good deal of my jetlag, fatigue and inability to sleep on the plane was actually due to that incessant noise (that, and that I never drank enough liquids - nonalcoholic liquids).

Once I started using earplugs during the entire flight (you can hear the movie just fine through the plugs) and making a point of drinking water throughout, the difference was huge. I arrive reasonably refreshed, not bleary-eyed and disoriented. The day-night cycle is still screwed up, of course, but the impact is much less.

Re:Time for air travellers to learn what mute is

[GameMaster]

I hate to break it to you but, much to the chagrin of the Christian right, the rights to not be annoyed, bothered, or offended aren't included in the U.S. Bill of Rights. In fact, in the situation you just described the only person who would likely be breaking the law would be you when you laid a hand on the other person's laptop (potentially destroying, valuable, unsaved work running in the background while the game was playing). If you don't like being cramped in small seats with potentially loud passengers then the onus is on you to buy a first class ticket. What exactly were you planning on doing if the person next to you happened to have a crying child, grab it from the mother and smother it with a pillow till it stopped?

The only people that have any say as to whether someone should have to turn the sound off on a flight are the flight attendants based on airline policy. In which case, they are responsible for handling it. Actively trying to turn someone's laptop off while they're using it is not only likely to be illegal but is also probably a good way to start a fight.

One of the down sides of freedom of speech/expression is that we all have to get used to the fact that we are, inevitably, going to be offended by something someone else in society does in the process of expressing their rights. The cost of that freedom is that we have to get over ourselves and learn to live with each other. Unless the other person is doing something that directly causes you harm (not just an annoyance for a few hours on a public plane) then you really shouldn't be complaining. This is something that the Christian right can't seem to handle. Much like the passenger in the plane that overreacts to noisy fellow passengers, they constantly seek to change the world around them to match their religious beliefs by limiting the right of other people.

-GameMaster

Re:Time for air travellers to learn what mute is

[Moofie]

"I reserve the right to forcibly apply butter to your keypad."

So if I infringe on your notions of politeness, you will attempt to destroy my personal property?

You'd be wise not to sit next to me on an airplane, buddy. I guarantee you will not enjoy the consequences of your actions.

Re:Time for air travellers to learn what mute is

[Zeinfeld]

An airplane cabin is _noisy_. That constant whine/hum/hiss is the single most tiring noise I know of.

Two words: Crazy Frog.

Good and bad

[zzyzx]

I have to admit that I would probably use this quite a bit to check my email and play on the web on flights.

However, I'll miss the fact that there was a space where I couldn't do those things. There's so much pressure on people to be available all the time, that it was nice to have forced downtime.

Okay, I give up

[Anonymous Coward]

What is it with you people who get upset when people talk on a mobile phone? Do you also get annoyed at people talking face to face in your presence? Do all forms of conversation in which you are not involved annoy you, or is it just the ones using a form of technology?

Re:Okay, I give up

[Scott Byer]

Americans yell into cell phones and don't have any cell phone etiquette. I just got back from Japan, where everyone has a cell phone, and where everyone understands how to actually use them. You don't use them while on the train, or you go between cars where you won't bother anyone, and you talk into them, letting the noise-reduction actually work and not bothering those around you. Only here, back at home, do people seem to be so stupid that they don't understand there's a proper place and method for using cellphones. And it's not while tailgating me on the freeway!

Interference with nav system all of a sudden gone?

[thekaz]

For the longest time airlines were telling us not to use electronic gadgets, fearing "interference with the navigation system." Well, if they're OK with having bunch of passengers putting out 1 Watt each @ 2.4 GHz, how come they were objecting to the little blackberry (albeit at a different frequency) and other two way radio devices?

Re:Finally!

[rimclean]

No, you cannot listen to your ipod 10 minutes either side of take off and landing because you need to be able to hear any emergency announcements coming over the intercom. Not because your ipod interferes with cockpit controls.

Re:Interference with nav system all of a sudden go

[HermanAB]

Never was an interference problem in the first place.

Re:Lufthansa...

[Jeff DeMaagd]

I think the difference being that the FAA is allowing them for US flights.

A little demonstration

[Spy der Mann]

Actually, people seem to yell (or talk very loudly) into cell phones because...

"I SAID that the reception sucks! Yes, SUCKS. Are you listening to me? No. Yes, no. TURN OF THAT NOISE DAMMIT - oh wait a second. Waitress, mind giving me an extra soda? Thanks.

No.
Yes.
No.

I _DO NOT_ appreciate yelling!
(at some point, someone tells me to lower my voice tone)
I can't help it, reception is awful, and look, if they allowed phones, it was for a reason.
Moron...
No, it wasn't to you.
No, i said it wasn't to you! There's this idiot next to me telling me to shut up.
Yes.
No.
FINALLY!! Well I have to go to the bathroom, I think that lobster is giving me nausea.
I said NAUSEA! Good bye!
*CHIRP*"

I hope that clarifies why it's annoying :)

Re:Why not RJ-45?

[appleLaserWriter]

1. you need to do physical installation into each seat
2. you need to run wires from each jack to some central location
3. the jacks and wire add up to a fair amount of extra mass, which means the plane needs more fuel and can carry less payload
4. not everyone carries an rj-45 patch cable, so the airline will need to keep some handy (yet more mass)
5. little kids will stuff action figures or food into the sockets, destroying them or even shorting the whole network out

Re:VoIP on planes

[Beatlebum]

"Still... real-time data connectivity while in the air will greatly increase my productivity while flying."

Really? You mean you don't have anything equally important that you could work on that doesn't require real-time connectivity? I find that very hard to believe. Perhaps you're just one of those people that constantly checks email and IM instead of doing real work (the stuff you could do offline). How many technology jobs *require* constant real-time connections? I'm sure they exist, but I can't think of many.

Re:Uh, latency?

[Geoffreyerffoeg]

Latency only matters for time-sensitive applications like games. You're crazy if you want to try playing games on airplanes. Your e-mail already takes minutes to go between servers, and web pages often go years between being posted and reaching you. Latency will be at most a few seconds.

depends on network configuration

[Atilla]

If the airlines don't want people using skype or VOIP in general, they can set up a firewall/proxy so it would not be possible.

yes, there are l33t hackers that would create a VPN tunnel via HTTP or some other such shit, but the majority of general public don't have any idea how to do that.

also, it could be a matter of policy - if they catch you being loud when you're not supposed to, they can tell you to stop, and if you don't - someone in a uniform will be waiting for you when you get off the plane :-)

Re:Hogwash

[spagetti_code]

(I am a private pilot). If you are flying in IMC (Instrument Meteorological Conditions - on instruments alone), you have placed the lives of your pax in the hands of the pilot and his instruments. There are no outside clues when things go wrong. See here
for the top 100 air disasters. Two of them were purely ILS failures.

I'm not so confident that it can't happen. There are numerous anecdotal stories in the industry of NAV equipment wandering off course. In 1999 there were 76 reported incidents of possible cellphone interference. On IMC, and especially when on approach, these have the potential to end in disaster.

Re:VoIP on planes

[DrEldarion]

Still... real-time data connectivity while in the air will greatly increase my productivity while flying.

That, to me, is a drawback. I don't WANT to be productive on a flight. It's nice to have a place where you're guaranteed to not be able to work.

Re:Lufthansa...

[Anonymous Coward]

Does it surprise you that the US gets it after everyone else? That's pretty common in the technology world.

Re:VoIP on planes

[zorander]

Access to version control/searchable hyperlinked documentation/build servers isn't important? How many corporate development architectures fit onto a laptop?

He said it made him more productive. It does. Rooting around on my hard drive for ADC docs is much more time consuming than typing into google or a search box. What about that library you didn't think you needed the docs for because you weren't using it directly?

Now that I'm used to having the internet and google as a resource at work when writing code, it's harder to do it the old fashioned way. There's no reason to anymore. Once you've built a development methodology, messing with it by removing internet access is a *bad idea* and likely to introduce bugs and inconsistencies.