Slashdot Mirror
American Airlines To Offer Wi-Fi In Planes
Firmafest writes "In USA Today there's a scoop that American Airlines will offer Wi-Fi on domestic flights. Price is approx. $10 to get connected. Being a frequent international flyer I hope this will catch on. The LA Times reports that the cost is about $100,000 to equip a plane. While that number seems high, it will probably be worth it. If I had a choice between two flights both equally good, I'd pick the Wi-Fi enabled one." The article also says that JetBlue and Southwest Airlines are at least experimenting with Wi-Fi access aboard, while Delta already offers it.
...we need the cash.
Virgin america also has WiFi on at least some of their flights.
Test your net with Netalyzr
Not sure why this article is 'news', its been tried before and even Boeing could not make it cost effective even when dealing with new-build aircraft (no retrofitting needed, lower costs than dealing with airframes that have already come off the production line) - the service was discontinued at the end of 2006.
Interestingly enough, Connexion was a partnership between Boeing, American, United and Delta airlines. I wonder what has changed...
Backelin said the Internet access will be filtered to block pornographic sites -- the airline at first said it wouldn't do that, but relented after hearing complaints from customers and flight attendants. And American won't allow voice-over-Internet phone service, to keep chattering to a minimum.
I don't fly often, but I'm going to start watching the sky for falling AA planes. With all the radio waves in planes introduced by offering wifi, there's no way the planes won't crash. At least, that's what the FAA has been telling us for as long as I can remember. Now that there's a way to make money from using radio devices in the cabin, there doesn't seem to be a problem anymore.
International waters/airspace, here I come!
You are going to be disappointed as an international flyer as internet access will only be deployed on domestic MD80s and 737s.
For flights over water, a satellite based system would be required and American Airlines is not using a satellite based system.
Skip ------ See the latest from http://www.anArchyFortWorth.com
Interestingly enough, Connexion was a partnership between Boeing, American, United and Delta airlines. I wonder what has changed...
Connexion was primarily on international flights, and used satellites. It was a lot more expensive to install ($500,000 per plane) and significantly more expensive to use.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connexion_by_Boeing
if they'll call it "Wi-Fli"?
Sacred cows make the best burgers.
...that it's perfectly safe to operate your wireless devices inside an airplane, as long as you're paying the airline for the pleasure.
That you can't be without it for a few hours?
Never been on a plane, huh? Let me enlighten you:
People on a plane will do anything to distract themselves from the cramped space, uncomfortable seats, stale air, stale body odor, and bad food. Including paying out the nose for booze, headphones to listen to a movie, or internet access.
Read a magazine? Oh, that's right, printed words cause a severe allergic reaction in most people nowadays. I forgot, sorry.
What good is WiFi when most of the flights I fly on don't give me anything to plug my laptop in to anyways? I'd even consider paying a few dollars for electric service on a flight so I could plug in and use my laptop for the duration of the flight. As it is, my laptop run time on flights is strictly limited to the charge on my batteries before I get on the plane.
And if I'm going to use my latop with WiFi on, that would only drain by battery slightly quicker than without it.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
I just flew AA and they charged me $40 for two suitcases. $15 for the first and $25 for the second. I understand what they're trying to do here but the problem is that their flights show up as cheaper on search results. You can think of it as a $40 discount if you don't have any checked baggage or a $25 discount if you only have one checked bag....but the searches should reflect that.
The possibilities are endless.
AA has been offering wireless on several SFO <-> JFK flights for quite a while. And as another poster pointed out, Virgin is also offering this on many flights.
I hit speedtest.net from both a recent American Airlines flight and a Virgin America flight (Bonus: Verizon Fios and TWC stats, too!).
The connections from the flights were good enough to watch Battlestar Galactica on hulu.com. (I am a big geek.)
In both cases, Internet service was provided by Gogo.
--Sam
Other than the fact that they are expanding the routes on which this is offered, I'm not sure how this is new news. Gogo has been offering service on trans-con American Airlines flights from LA to the east coast for at least 6 months now.
I've used it a few times, and it works OK. Speeds were reasonable (100-150KB download speeds, ping times comparable to mobile broadband, 150-200ms) and I think there was only 1 dead spot for a few minutes during the times that I was logged in. They did not block VPN access so you could conceivably use VoIP once you VPN, but I did not try this.
A link to the actual service (rather than USA today or a blog) would help too:
http://www.gogoinflight.com/
I was on a Southwest flight that was testing this out about a month ago, where it was free for passengers. I ran speakeasy's speed test on it, http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/ , and got about 3000 kbps down, and something like 200 kbps up. I ran the test about five minutes after they announced that we could use the service, and it seemed like more than half the people on the plane had laptops out and were playing with the service, even though none of us knew that the service would be available until we got on the plane.
FAA regulations dictate a more stringent set of requirements for equipment for use on aircraft. Hell, even the service carts have to be certified. Above that there's significant testing and product development that has to go into this kind of deployment.
As an example, ARINC qualified ethernet connectors run about $80 apiece.
There's also onboard servers to provide credit card support services, localized content so it's not just a Wireless Router solution.
Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
Not exactly. Generally, all of the airspace over a territory is within the jurisdiction of that terrority. However, at least in the United States, the federal government has sole jurisdiction over the navigable airways; state jurisdiction does not apply. There's a very interesting blog article about airspace jurisdiction, written about 1 year and half ago on a college legal blog.
I believe the airspace over international waters, is treated exactly like the international waters themselves.
IANAL, TINLA, etc.
My blog
Add a 1 to 3% fuel burn penalty for the life of that aircraft and recalculate. Satellite based internet requires a relatively large antenna that bulges off the top of the fuselage. Not aerodynamic, not green, not cheap, and not efficient. Not sure what if any fuel burn penalty there is for cellular based internet antennas.
That's a hell of a long flight! Maybe you should take the train next time.
Boeing's Connexion failed in large part because of bad luck. They introduced their Connexion service back in summer 2001 with large launch customers such as American, Delta, and United Airlines. Unfortunately a few months later you had 9/11 which financially crippled nearly every domestic American airline and brought deep-sixed Connexion's entire business plan. The company struggled to keep it viable for a while, but the small number of foreign airlines and shipping companies wasn't enough; they needed large airlines with heavy business traffic to keep the program viable.
Lose a few pounds.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on