Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

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

Posted by timothy on from the latency-desires dept.

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?"

8 of 198 comments (clear)

  1. Skype? by HuckleCom · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Probably blocked everything VoIP related to force airphones on you.

    1. Re:Skype? by jfruhlinger · · Score: 3, Insightful

      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.

    2. Re:Skype? by Nursie · · Score: 4, Insightful

      "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.

  2. May I be the first to say by Critical+Facilities · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

  3. VOIP on planes = bad by gcnaddict · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.

    --
    Viable Slashdot alternatives: https://pipedot.org/ and http://soylentnews.org/
  4. Re:Crypto by t00le · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

    --
    When the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail
  5. Re:Srsly? by netsavior · · Score: 4, Insightful

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

  6. Re:Srsly? by rm999 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.