Panasonic May Relaunch In-flight Broadband

Glenn Fleishman writes "Panasonic's avionics division may relaunch Connexion by Boeing by using similar technology that's better, cheaper, and lighter. The company said today that they were looking to get airlines to commit to 500 planes within 60 days, and already had 150 aircraft committed. They'd still use Ku band, but have a cheaper and smaller set of leases. Connexion had at least $120m in yearly fixed expenses, a large part of which was transponder licenses. The new service would provide 12 Mbps down and 3 Mbps (versus Connexion's 5 Mbps/1 Mbps), and be priced conceivably as low as $10 per session wholesale, with airlines choosing to not mark up rates. With that higher rate, even with latency, in-flight VoIP seems more achievable at a reasonable cost, although some airlines may choose to block VoIP services. I reported for The Economist magazine last week about mobile phones in flight (services coming in Europe in 2007). Three U.S. airlines told me that American passengers have very low interest or negative interest in allowing any voice (cell or otherwise) during flights. Europeans, with shorter flights and lower expectations of privacy perhaps, are more open to it." We covered the story back when Boeing decided to scrap Connexion.

Comments

...but look on the bright side

[RuBLed]

... ...

missing word?

[rocketman768]

The new service would provide 12 Mbps down and 3 Mbps (versus Connexion's 5 Mbps/1 Mbps), and be priced conceivably as low as $10...

Should that read "...and 3 Mbps UP..."?

Re:What I do care about...

[Qzukk]

I WOULD HATE IT. You know why? Because every annoying person in the world would converge on my airplane and make calls through-out the flight.

I smell a business model here.

You can pay $10 to use the internet.
You can pay $20 to use the internet and let VoIP traffic through.
You can pay $50 to disable the VoIP traffic for the people sitting in the seats around you :)

We all know where this is headed

[Ugly American]

In related news, the RIAA has announced the purchase of several F-22A raptors to pursue downloaders.

Re:Public Airwaves

[fireman sam]

into phone: Hello... yeah?... can you hear me now?... how about now?... yeah?... good... Listen I just called... what?... How about now?... good... Listen, I just wanted to say... wanted to say that... now?... Say that I have to agree with you about the lack of... Hang on... How about now?... lack of manners that some people have when they are on the... Is that better?... when they are on the phone... How about now?... I'll call you again in 5 minutes... You're breaking up... I'll call you back...
  to fellow passenger (trying to sleep): Don't you just hate these things?

Thankyou

So sad.

[Rob T Firefly]

and already had 150 aircraft committed.

It was for their own protection. The poor unfortunate airplanes had completely lost their grip on reality, and believed themselves to be ocean liners.

When the 737s started terrorizing maintenance workers on the runway by taxing over to them and shouting "I'm a luxury cruise ship, play shuffleboard on me damn you!" we knew it was time for the padded hangars.

Re:I don't travel often

[Anonymous Coward]

My right to extend my arm ends when it hits your face, not before.

So you're free to whip it out and spank your monkey on a plane now? After all you're not physically hitting anyone.

Sheesh you dorkus libertarians give us more sensible ones a bad name.

Re:I don't travel often

[Anonymous Coward]

So you're free to whip it out and spank your monkey on a plane now?

If you can't stand that sight, don't fly Virgin Airlines then...

Up vs. down

[booch]

I assume they mean that it has 12 Mbps download speed. Which is actually 12 Mbps up from the ground to the plane.