Virgin American In-Flight Internet Review, From In-Flight

wintersynth writes "I've posted a review of Virgin America's in-flight internet provided by Gogo. Here's the scoop: Avg. .90 megabits/sec DL, .283 megabits/sec UL, ping: 130.6 msecs, $12.95 for the duration of the flight. Verdict: AWESOME. In fact, I'm posting this from 36,000 feet right now. Skype did not work for voice, even though I'm pretty sure those stats are over the minimums. Any ideas from the slashdotters on what might be going on?"

Comments

Skype?

[HuckleCom]

Probably blocked everything VoIP related to force airphones on you.

Re:Skype?

[jfruhlinger]

Probably blocked everything VoIP related to force airphones on you.

Except that most airplanes removed airphones long ago, since they never really worked economically. Certainly Virgin America's brand-new planes won't have them.

They probably blocked everything VoIP related so that the people next to you don't throttle you for shouting in to your fucking Bluetooth headset while they're trying to read, sleep, or otherwise try to ignore you.

Re:Skype?

[Nursie]

"They probably blocked everything VoIP related so that the people next to you don't throttle you for shouting in to your fucking Bluetooth headset while they're trying to read, sleep, or otherwise try to ignore you."

This, so much this.

Flight time is quiet time, for god's sake leave the phone alone or I might just kill you. Trust me, I already hate you enough for having the audacity to get up to use the bathroom, for smelling of *anything* and for claiming rights to the middle armrest between our seats. If you start yakking away I can't be responsible for my actions. Now have fun with your internets but PLEASE shut the hell up.

May I be the first to say

[Critical Facilities]

I tried dialing the Skype test call, but I only caught every other word. So much for my dreams of in-flight video conferencing while yelling over the din of jet engines.

Oh god, I hope you, nor anyone else, ever gets this to work.

Re:May I be the first to say

[lawaetf1]

Amen. Can you imagine an 8-hour flight with everyone yapping around you? Hideous.

"yeah.. no that's what I said!.. oh he always acts like that HAHAHA... hey are you going to that thing on saturday?....... yeah but Jim will be there!..... oh this flight is taking for-EVER... geez promise you'll come visit me!.... oh hang on, he's calling, I'll call you right back!.. no, it's ok, we don't land for another four hours.. mmkay, bye--kisses!.... hey honey!"

Skype... blocked or just sounded bad?

[Zondar]

They might have a way to block Skype, or it could just be a large amount of jitter from you to the Skype gateway you were trying to reach.

VOIP on planes = bad

[gcnaddict]

We don't want to hear you talking on the phone while flying, and neither does Virgin.

Logically, they likely blocked it in order to preserve the sanity of other passengers.

Re:Skype

[willda]

We recently switched to WildBlue satellite internet service and it has a fair amount of latency. No big deal really but it would be too much for Skype and you have to assume that the same problem would hold true for any sat service. (BTW WildBlue is awesome compared to the dial-up rurals have to put up with :)

Crypto

[t00le]

You might want to try to vpn into work or home, then try to use Skype. Chances are they filtering what ports are allowed, so going through a crypto tunnel will remove this ability.

Re:Crypto

[t00le]

I didn't added QoS into my original post. If you VPN into work or home you can remove their ability to filter or tag your connections through a VPN. By tunneling everything through a VPN it would be a true test since anyone with a clue will set crypto traffic with a high priority on a border network.

If it's still unusable it will be due to errors on the transmission, which with tcp would be classed as slowness. With UDP it would be missing packets that are not re-transmitted.

An analogy, in quake w/ tcp code you would hump a wall when lagged, but with udp you would teleport through the wall.

Your fellow passengers are thankful...

[pongo000]

Skype did not work for voice, even though I'm pretty sure those stats are over the minimums.

Re:Your fellow passengers are thankful...

[twidarkling]

No, screaming brats are NOT okay. But the only proven method for shutting them up tends to be frowned upon in most legal circles. However, the constant nattering of someone on the phone does not need to be added to the situation. I fail to see how VoIP and screaming kids are even close to analogous. There's factors such as "kid's ticket was paid for, person being chatted with did not purchase ticket." Thus, it's in their interests to keep things as quiet as possible for the people who have actual tickets.

Re:Srsly?

[netsavior]

2 magazines at the airport gift shop could easily cost you $12.95, nobody bats an eye at that...

Voip in the sky

[Igarden2]

If there is a god in the sky, voip will stay blocked.
I can't imagine sitting around someone who is talking incessantly on a phone on an airplane.
I don't care to listen to my own family members talk on a telephone for any length of time.

Re:Srsly?

[rm999]

Am I the only one who assumed they are targeting business travelers? 13 dollars is nothing to them, literally - their company pays for it.

Internet on the plane is an awesome concept to the average person, but I think most people will change their mind when it comes down to typing in their credit card number.

Re:Skype and video games probobly won't work.

[Princeofcups]

I've been working as a contractor for Aircell, the company behind the network, and it is not satellite, except for a few points. The network is 100 cell phone towers to T1 to internet. Max bandwidth is 3Mb. And yes VoIP is blocked for obvious reasons.

For more info, check out aircell.com.