Boeing Connexion, No More Wi-Fi at 30,000 ft?

symonty writes "After 6 years and one billion dollars, Boeing is evaluating whether or not their wifi for planes connectivity business can be a viable business. " I've never had the actual pleasure of evaluating it or not; some folks, however, have said it's a great service.

Comments

Whoah

[FirienFirien]

How on earth did they manage to spend a *billion* on wifi? The systems in the plan are still wired, so you should only need to shield the cockpit and any more backwards-mounted instruments if you're worried that wifi operation at a completely different frequency to aircraft systems will affect the instruments, autopilot or ILS in any way. I'm astounded that it even cost a few million, let alone a billion. What the heck have they been doing with all that money?

Re:Whoah

[KowShak]

You need to do more than just shield the cockpit. Every wire that runs along the length of the plane is a potential aerial, it could pick up the wi-fi signal and carry it to somewhere where it can cause problems.

The ILS system (or modern equivilent) is what is most susceptable to interference, thats the system that lands the plane, it can land a plane when the conditions are so bad that the pilot can't see the runway. Modern planes land themselves pretty much, they follow a radio signal to the end of the runway. If the ILS signal is interfered with at the wrong time the plane might not land on the runway, it could overshoot, undershoot or hit the ground in another expensive and embarrasing way.

really?

[m874t232]

I fly a lot and I have yet to be able to get a WiFi connection on a plane. And given the astronomical prices of in-flight phone service, I suspect it would be too expensive even if I could.

If Boeing wants WiFi to happen on planes, they need to make sure it's universally available, they need to include it free in first/business class, and they need to charge 128kbps) in economy class.

Re:really?

[Guanix]

I use it everytime I fly SAS from Copenhagen to Shanghai, and it's not that expensive IMHO. Around $30 for the entire 11-hour flight, and there are cheaper per-hour pricing options available.

Re:really?

[Strider-]

I used it on a Lufthansa flight from the west coast to Kuwait. Given that it was a 23 hour flight (with connections) I hapilly paid the $26 to have broadband for my whole flight rather than watching the lamely edited movies on the plane. Heck, after my iPod ran out of power, I just flipped my laptop to Radio Paradise, and listend to it while flying over Iraq and into Kuwait.

On the other hand, the only way I can see them having spent this kind of dough is on the aircraft transmitters. The satellite time itself is rather cheap, figure $75 an hour for a connection in the amount of bulk that Boeing was buying it in.

Sad to see it go

[stefanb]

My girlfriend and I had the opportunity to use this onboard Lufhansa flights between the US and Germany a couple of times, and it's really a nice way to pass the time. Well worth the 30 bucks, for us anyway.

Plus freaking out the other business class passengers when we set up a live stream and demonstrated the various positions you can put the seat into live from 30,000 feet to our friends back home :-) Considering that the connection is via geo-sync satellite and double-NATed, I was surprised at how well the streaming worked; only about 2 secs rtt, and we managed to push 200 kbit/s.

Re:Great Service, but as for power

[grommit]

Many of the long haul flights (transatlantic/pacific) have a laptop power plug for approximately every 3-5 seats in coach class nowadays. Especially in the non-US owned airlines.

Re:$27 access fee?

[cnettel]

SAS (maybe other airlines as well) provides the Connexion by Boeing service, even trademarked as such, on their trans-Atlantic (and other longhaul, AFAIK) flights, even though it's served by Airbus planes. I had a backlog of work to finish and it was a breeze to get 800 kbps in mid-air while passing over Greenland and switching to my third laptop battery. Ok, that last bit mentions part of the problem (as noted by others), but it was still a great service, "even" in economy class.

Re:Money versus power - verses time

[bored_lurker]

> The biggest issue with these kind of internet connections is the price, which would certainly stop me from using it unless the company is willing to foot the bill (Anyway, I'd rather be watching a movie or sleeping than working).

Work? No. Company pays the bill? Yes! ;-)

I have a friend who does a lot of international travel. He uses and loves in flight WiFi. It costs him about $30 a flight. He uses it to check email (hence the company pays) and then plays WoW on it. And his latency is low (100-150). Now $30 sounds like a lot of money for a connection, but as all of us who play WoW know hours can seem like minutes. How much is it worth to you to make a 12 hour flight feel like a 12 minute flight?

Re:IP Soft Phones?

[pcguru19]

On the ground, the Superman thing has been dealt with. But when dealing with an industry that hasn't changed their headphone ports in 30 years, I doubt they'd look at a packet shaper device on their freshman effort.

Plenty of people running the Hughes Satellite Internet service are using VOIP with minor issues, but nothing that keeps you from having a conversation. With laptops coming with built-in WAN capabilities nowadays; I think that's how most folks that want access will get access. I've seen plenty of folks on flights using their phone for data access without processing that they were still using cellular service to do it, so as WAN grows in acceptance (especially integrated instead of an aircard that's obvious)there's going to be a boatload of people running cellular traffic on the flights.

I'd rather see the airline folks spend some effort to get rid of some stupid regulations and unneccessary people instead of getting another mediocre service. We can eliminate the flight attendant costs on flights with a DVD player and a coke machine, so just do it. Let the folks that sit in the exit row get $50 off the flight in exchange for making sure the overhead bins are closed and everyone has a seatbelt on at takeoff. If the plane crashes, I'm sure everyone will get to the nearest exit or gaping hole in the plane to exit from.