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

Re:I don't travel often

[Ada_Rules]

But when I do for business I enjoy the fact that myself and everyone else on the plane cannot talk and is not in contact with anyone. Its like a few hours of peace and quiet where I actually don't need to think about work or listen to other people yack on about similar stuff. I'd be happy to see planes without Internet and phone access because then I wouldn't feel preassured into actually doing more work during a time where I should be relaxing.

Yes, I totally agree. And while we are at it lets get rid of phones and Internet in the house since people should be spending time with their kids. Also, I really hate seeing people mow their lawns on Sunday. It really bothers me. Lets get rid of that too. People should be relaxing on Sunday.

I don't know what happened to the land of the free but my fellow Americans have turned into the biggest bunch of busy bodies complainers in the world. We want to limit the rights of others because "it is just so annoying".

What is wrong with you people. My right to extend my arm ends when it hits your face, not before.