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Qantas To Offer In-Flight Internet, Laptop Amenities
SlinkySausage writes "Australian international airline Qantas has just announced in-flight broadband will be available across all classes in its new fleet of A380s. Also on offer will be laptop power in economy and internet access in the seat-back entertainment system. They are retrofitting existing 747s with elements of the technology, and providing several ports for passengers with more expensive tickets: 'The USB ports will be used for "viewing of content" on the in-flight entertainment system, though Qantas wouldn't be drawn on whether that would include Divx video capability, or the ability to connect an iPod. It would also allow recharging of USB-powered devices. The Ethernet port is for laptops that don't have wireless, or for people who simply prefer an Ethernet connection over WiFi, which could potentially become congested in an aircraft if in-flight internet usage becomes popular.'"
This is about time. If you are trying to accomplish work on long International flights, simple laptop accommodations are a necessity, even in coach. And given that more and more work is absolutely dependent upon Internet access, this is welcome indeed.
I've found Qantas to be one of the most accommodating airlines as well as one of the most progressive. While my last flight on Quantas was not all it could be (not the fault of Qantas), I would fly them in preference to just about any other carrier and most other carriers could learn from them. Even their international coach is most comfortable with more entertainment options than I've seen on other carriers and given their Internet access, upcoming trips to Japan and China will likely be on Qantas unless the other carriers can step up and offer Internet access.
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It's QANTAS, not QANTIS.
Queensland And Northern Territory Aerial Services.
I doubt if one could do more than check e-mail - As they say in the article, if everyone logs on, the flight 'll probably end before one can do any worthwhile browsing/e-mail work..
IMO, the power for laptops sounds more useful to me - on a long haul flight, it will allow me to finish more work in the flight itself..
Hope the other airlines also start something like this soon..."Laziness is an optimisation protocol"
Internet connectivity is provided on our new flights, but personal electronic devices will henceforth be restricted due to security concerns...
âoeAny society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.
this is long overdue and more importantly, would swing my preference. I would pay a bit more to fly Qantas with this service, it's just a shame they aren't allowed to fly domestically in the US
After recently using QANTAS to fly to India from Au and back again, I would really welcome this move. I ended up lending a friends Nintendo DS just to pass the boredom. The in flight entertainment is pretty average, with international movies, as well as american produced dribble, with movies subtitled in the destinations language.
Funnily enough, I was asked to "turn off my laptop wifi" during the flight because it may interfere with the workings in the cockpit.
The article mentions the companies that are implementing this feature, who will no doubt botch the first implementation. If any of you guys are reading this, I'd be happy to assist you with your usability problems.
Charlie: Ray, all airlines have crashed at one time or another, that doesn't mean that they are not safe.
Raymond: QANTAS. QANTAS never crashed.
Charlie: QANTAS?
Raymond: Never crashed.
Charlie: Oh that's gonna do me a lot of good because QANTAS doesn't fly to Los Angeles out of Cincinnati, you have to get to Melbourne! Melbourne, Australia in order to get the plane that flies to Los Angeles!
mod me funny
This reminds me off how QANTAS were going to (still going to?) offer the ability to send and receive text messages on board the plane. The "tower" had its own country code, and thus sending messages was sending them internationally, which costs a lot of course...
This Internet access won't be free, in fact it will probably cost much more then the prices at the airport. Personally, I don't think I would use such a facility (unless it was free), if I have my laptop, well I have NetHack, lots of E-Books (though I dislike reading them on the screen) and similar. Plus, even in economy, don't they have games and movies and stuff to watch on the seat in front of you? (Malaysian Airlines do.)
(Random fun fact, QANTAS has the best safety record of any international airline. But their worker policies are often crap.)
I wank in the shower.
If I should book my next flight from Charlottesville, Virginia to Atlanta, Georgia through Australia to take advantage of this...
Ben Hocking
Need a professional organizer?
I don't know this is a good idea. Right now flights between places like LA and OZ & NZ, there is not much to do except to sleep especially since it is an overnight flight. Bring in laptops and cell phones into the equation, no one will get much sleep due to someone talking or the glow from the laptop LCD. If it was a day flight, a different story.
A good compromise would be to have a work area someplace in the plane where you can get thing accomplished without bothering anyone else. But space is money. The more people you pack in, the more money the airline makes.
Here is my personal experience back this past winter, I did a trip between LAX and AKL (LA, CA & Auckland NZ). It was an overnite flight which takes ~12 hours. Qantas exceeds what we have got used to on domestic flights. Even though it is airline food, you get fed dinner and breakfast. As an added bonus, you get free alcohol. After the meal, the lights are totally turned off. On my flight down no one turned on their reading light, it made for good sleeping even in coach. On the flight back, I had one a-hole nearby who thought it was good to read in the middle of the night. It would been better to go up into the galley area to read. During the flight, I would get up every once in a while and go to the galley to look maybe read and be considerate of my neighbors.
No, you cannot join the Mile High Club by taking your laptop with you to the bathroom and hitting the pr0n, no matter how much Cat5 you stuff into the carry-on for facilitating this.
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
This is fantastic news - a great leap forward. HOWEVER The cabin baggage weight limits are SO strict these days - I can only just take my 15" laptop + power brick + bag onto a flight, given the strict 7KG weight limit. They really need to return to the old days where it was "one carry on bag plus one Personal Item" such as hangbag, briefcase OR LAPTOP.
IIRC, the airlines prefer to wireless over wired connection for several reasons. The same number of wireless access points as ethernet ports requires less wiring and saves weight (antenna overhead as opposed to running cable to every seat). Putting hardwired ports shows some real commitment by Quantas since they would have to retrofit seats (which I guess they are already if they are providing power).
_ run/)
I hope the wireless catches on now that my cell phone is wi-fi VOIP (http://cincinnatibell.com/consumer/wireless/home
The world is made by those who show up for the job.
In flight Quantas internet $60
Ticket to Australia $2000
Your face when you work out the price of $0.15/MB over 200 mb of usage
Priceless
http://my.bigpond.com/internetplans/broadband/cabl e/plans/
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
VOIP on your laptop or perhaps iPhone, etc.? mmm... no more at&t/sprint airphone taunting me from the seatback in front of me.
"If still these truths be held to be
Self evident."
-Edna St. Vincent Millay
I gather Qantas are under a lot of pressure from Emirates for popular Europe-Australia routes. Emirates have a young fleet with very good facilities - the best on-demand system I've seen anyway. Some people have complained that Emirates takes subsidies from the sheikhs of Dubai, although the Wikipedia page for Emirates says that this is not the case.
Peter
Anyone know what kind of system they're using for connectivity? Guessing some sort of satellite system. Though I've heard they have a horrible uplink for obvious reasons. How can such a system handle requests from 50-100+ users and not freeze up because of request packet overflow.
I invested $50,000 a couple days ago...now I have $500,000, talk about 1000% return...and it's still going up!!!
http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=SPZI.PK
So either the "interference issues" have been solved, or it has been an hoax since the beginning.
Maybe Computers will never be as intelligent as Humans.
For sure they won't ever become so stupid. [VR-1988]
Here in Australia we call them CuntAss because they are mean to their own customers.
I was under the impression that any form of wireless communication during flight was not allowed unless throughly tested and re-tested by airline technicians, etc... Why is it that a low spectrum proprietary wireless signal can be transmitted from the plane with 2.4Ghz WiFi added into the equation, but here in the U.S. I can't turn on a PCS, CDMA, or iDEN based cell phone? Is this odd to anyone else?
This is great news. But:
Didn't one airline already offer this for a short while, but they abandoned it because they didn't want terrorists to be able to communicate with the ground, or colleagues on other planes?
Also, why is Wi-Fi suddenly safe while we're not allowed to use cell phones on board?
FTA:
Qantas says it will offer wireless internet throughout the A380s -- even in economy -- as well as web and email access via seat-back inflight entertainment systems if you don't have a laptop with you. I can only wonder if, having been "educated" that a cell phone turned on while in flight can bring the entire plane crashing down in flames, some customers might feel a slight bit uneasy when they see everyone firing up their laptops and connecting to the free wireless.On the one hand, I imagine some people might make the connection that both phone and laptops send them new fangled electronical signals through the air, without any wires (devils!)... while others will simply say "Oh, phones aren't laptops" and never give it a second thought.
How long will it be until we see the first story of a customer going crazy on a Quantas plane because they think their life is about to end in a mess of wreckage and flaming jetfuel because Johnny is checking his email.
What airline do you fly? I routinely use Japan Airlines, All Nippon Airlines (ANA), Qantas and Lufthansa. None of them have enforced such a policy on even coach class. I usually get 1 item that will fit in the overhead bin, and 1 item that can fit under the seat. On business class I can fit BOTH of my bags (both the max. size for int'l carry on, which means all my luggage inside and nothing stowed away in cargo) in addition to a briefcase with my laptop. The ONLY airlines that I've had trouble with are... you guessed it... U.S. airlines. Specifically, United and U.S. Air. They can get pretty anal. But I'm usually in a bad mood by the time I get through security check point in the U.S. anyhow...
I'm always loaded down with my carry-ons. As long as it fits in the box outside the terminal they don't care. Even if it does not fit they rarely give me any fuss. Only airline that got pissy with me was some cheap shit China airline going from Shenzen to Beijing. They were cheap as hell. A whole $20 extra to check the luggage was fine by me.
Some of us can't sleep in planes or trains, you know.
You can't take the sky from me...
Both of the major Japanese carriers, JAL and ANA, have given me excellent service. I fly ANA when I go back to the States (mostly because JAL doesn't fly NRT-IAD), and aside from the consistent professionalism of their employees, the flight amenities are good as well; they put seat TVs in coach several years back, and they had Boeing's Internet access service (Connexion, was it?) installed as well until it was discontinued. I've come to dread the rare occasions when I have to fly a domestic US route.
I'll definitely have to remember Qantas when I go vacation in Australia, though.
How is the speed, uptime, latencies, etc. on these flights? Is it like dial-up speed? I know on cruise ships, Internet really sucks. Worse than dial-up.
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
In the event of a water landing, your laptop will need to be used a flotation device.
Navy Tim www.navytim.com
Your face when you work out the price of $0.15/MB over 200 mb of usage
Uh.. assuming you meant "MB" for megabytes and not millibits, that comes up to an extra $30. That's pocket change if you're already spending $2000 on tickets. What's the big deal?
It always amazes me that people are to stupid to bring an eye shade and ear plugs when they plan on sleeping in a crowded room. What is with these jerks that think mass transit and a bedroom are the same thing?
Of course these people certainly make a good argument for avoiding mass transit.
I travel alot, and a lack of internet access for 12 hours or so is one of the things I really don't miss. I do a hell a lot of work on flights and a major reason for that is that I have to plan in advance, make sure I've got all the info I need and then I'm away. If I was on the internet I'd be expected to connect back to base, read and respond to emails and basically get less actual work done as people sent emails like "have you landed yet".
I like the fact that for 12 hours I'm out of communications and I can settle down and do what I want to do. I land, sync with the airport's WiFi and by the time I'm in the cab I'm responding to all those emails anyway, 30 minutes later I'm in the hotel and connected and the emails are all sent.
Lufthansa tried this a few years ago and then cancelled it because simply put the folks in business class (who would pay for this stuff) preferred to drink the nice wine, have a nice meal and have a sleep rather than browse the internet and get their emails.
An Eye for an Eye will make the whole world blind - Gandhi
I believe Lufthansa was happily using Boeing's Connexion service until it was withdrawn due to insufficient takeup by other carriers. Note that Lufthansa was quite happy with the service even though it cost almost a fortune to mod the 747-400. The service was slow but it provided web and email access from Angels 33 without problems. To those of us old enough to remember 33K modems and slower, the speed wasn't so much an issue (although some people's web design was).
The thing is for short flights, it wasn't particularly interesting. Most people can afford to be off net for a few hours, so unless you were doing coast to coast in the US, it wasn't that interesting. Australia has some quite long distance flights inside the country, let alone to Asia, North America or Europe. That would make some money.
See my journal, I write things there
They lost it due to underestimating how stringent they had made their cabling/power/EMI requirements, as well as how much effort it would take to correct signal strength disconnects between component systems during aircraft integration.
7 KG? You must be from outside the U.S. Here in America, the limit of the weight of a carry-on tends to zero as you consider the weight of the average citizen. Basically, compared to a 300 lb man, a 15 lb bag is insignificant digits.
I got to use it once (for free!) on Lufthansa before they shut it down. The speed was about on par with using my 3G cell phone as a modem, maybe a bit faster. I VPN'ed into my company's network and printed out a page saying I was typing and printing this from 33,000 feet over the middle of the Atlantic, just so I could say I've done it. ;)
Imagine the RIAA trying to figure out how to stop it.
Not to mention chat with the lovely female in the next row up.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
When the plane gets over international waters they should allow the passengers to have a p2p love-in, sharing all their media with each other while thumbing their noses at copyright law.
I am becoming gerund, destroyer of verbs.
unless you have a really tiny laptop - providing an internet connection still wont let you actually open the thing when the person in front reclines their seat - remember the cross-pacific flights QANTAS runs are largely overnight
Since the article didn't have any useful info on the satellite link, here is Inmarsat's SwiftBroadband spec sheet... http://www.omnipless.com/SwiftBroadband.pdf
As soon as airlines offer this service and charge more for a seat to have access to it, the question of Quality of Service becomes relevant. If I pay an extra $20, $30, whatever, for a seat that has service amenities like power for my laptop, internet access, etc. and this stuff doesn't work, or breaks my laptop (power surge?), the complaining will begin and refunds will have to be given out. I'd be sure to ask about what to expect for my extra dollar...
Noone batted an eye, except for the security explosives screener who laughed, "Seven kilograms?!?" Normally I hate this and people who do it. But I tried to justify it as a one time one way trip (I was immigrating).
Qantas was founded in 1920. Their last fatal accident was in 1951.
Ryanair was founded in 1985.
Not every seat, but they have a map that's been correct every time I've needed it. 15V lighter-style plugs... If you're stuck on the plane for 6, 8, 10... hours, it's nice to have something that numbs the mind (tunes, DVD's) as well as permits work. If networking permits play as well, might be a nice addition.
Actually, Southwest Airlines has never had a crash in the way most of us think of one, though they did have a nosegear snap on Flight 1445 on March 5, 2000. No loss of life in their history so far. Granted, unless you're flying a relatively few destinations in the U.S. you're not going to get to use them.
Two problems with this in coach/economy:
Emirates are my favourite airline - great service and entertainment system.
They also went off a runway at Midway Airport, Chicago, in 2005, which did involve loss of life (albeit not a passenger- see, flying really is safer than driving!) And they do cover most of the major airports in the US. I'm certainly more likely to fly on SouthWest sometime soon than QUANTAS...
If I don't put anything here, will anyone recognize me anymore?
Why not have a total weight per person, including the person's weight? That seems more fair overall, and it would encourage overweight people to be more healthy.
The government can't save you.
Is it a good idea to let non-avionics class equipment to be plugged in to 120VAC in a plane? Even if all possible overloads have been considered from the wiring standpoint, charging large lithium batteries with cheap-as-possible electronics might not be a good idea.
I've always found the wireless/cellphone thing a little funny. How many business types even know how to turn off the wireless on their laptops? Do all laptops default to silent listening until they hear an access point?
Heck, the wireless or cell phone is pretty well controlled by the FCC.. plug in a cheap generic mouse to USB, headphones to an internal class D amplifier, whatever. Don't think that EMI compliance testing is taken seriously enough by manufacturers to make much difference.
In the old days when you could check in 20kgs and carry on anything (weight wise), some diving friends of mine would carry their lead weightbelts (10+ kgs) and save a significant chunk of their check-in allowance. But back then I never had problems carrying on a lock-blade knife with a 6-inch blade though at least 10 different airports in various countries.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
This from the same airline whose hostesses ask me to turn my phone off while in flight "even though it's probably in flight mode". Now they're going to encourage you to use your laptop and WiFi? About time.
If phones were really that dangerous in flight, they'd lock them up in the cargo area with your bags.
...I wouldn't by now.
Carlton United 93, a movie of the fated flight.
They will be using I4 inmarsat, so I suggest you don't try VPN or surfing.
As long as the customer expectations are controlled this will be a worthwhile service, but will probably fall short of a real broadband open experience.
Multiple channels will not increase speeds, ( will increase usable bandwidth ) due to bonding issues on variable latent links and overall satelitte capacity.
Also without hogging the link "streaming class service" ( prohibitivly expensive ) , the standards used on the I4 inmarsat satelittes give very little chance of achieving the max throughput.
The standard used is the BGAN system, there is some online testing avaliable suggesting realworld throughput of around 256K and 800-1100 ms ping times, when the whole link is dedicated to a single user.
Remember all data figures are per plane, and thus will be divided equally throughout the users.
This will be a usefull service if the passenger understands this is not your 50ms 1.5mb/s DSL home link.
-- email me @ 30,000 ft
http://www.shephard.co.uk/Inflight/default.aspx?Ac tion=-1000945703&ID=de342e1c-fa33-4415-bcc4-0adb35 44cb42
This will be real broadband 1-3mb/s.
this isn't so innovative. I read a few months ago that 888.com is going to be the first online casino to enter the booming in-flight entertainment industry, as it joins forces with IFE (in-flight entertainment) software developer DTI. I actually wondered what has happened with this since then. Can someone please update me? This is very interesting.
r st-ever-in-flight-entertainment-casino
The entire article is here: http://news.777.com/2007-04/888-com-offers-the-fi
The Ethernet port is for laptops that don't have wireless, or for people who simply prefer an Ethernet connection over WiFi, which could potentially become congested in an aircraft if in-flight internet usage becomes popular.'"
In my home the internet link is about 8 mbps, while my wireless is 54mbps. The same will hold in an airplane. Actually I doubt they will be able to get 8mpbs for the whole plane.
So congestion will not happen, unless there is an inflight content-server that becomes popular, or people do peer-to-peer on the plane.
Bandwidth on wired ethernet is not unlimited either, and will similarly get congested at a slightly (100 mbps instead of 54) or significant higher bandwidth.
I guess the A380s must be less delayed than I had thought. ;)
Village idiot in some extremely smart villages.