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JetBlue Launches Satellite-Based Inflight Wi-Fi
First time accepted submitter spineas writes "JetBlue is rolling out a new form of inflight Wi-Fi operating from satellites instead of ground-based cell towers. Up to eight times faster than traditional inflight Wi-Fi, it will enable users to stream video whilst in the air, something that is nearly impossible to do with current dial-up speed access in aircraft."
I connected to a Slingbox over a VPN after doing a Facetime conversation with my parents via GoGo. It's plenty fast enough for video.
Sure perhaps a few people can stream video over this connection, but I really doubt one satellite link would hold up to even ten people using Netflix...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Streaming video over in-flight WiFi? So this means I shouldn't check my notebook?
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
How would you like Slashdot to cover this? It's clearly within their scope, and they never claimed to have original journalism for these sorts of things, so they're left linking to other people's coverage. What Slashdot brings to the table is gathering these sorts of stories in one place and (more importantly) the comment section.
Now they can join american, united, lufhansa, and all the other carriers that have sat based wifi.
I can't even get my laptop to connect from the corner of the garden. That's some serious WiFi power!
Why can't people just relax and enjoy the peace and quiet ?
Why must they bring all those hustle and bustle into one of the last quiet spaces left ?
What peace and quiet? Airline cabins are noisy (what do think noise canceling headphones were invented for?) and uncomfortable. Some of us can sleep through this after a fashion. Others would much rather get work done so they have to time to relax somewhere that is actually relaxing.
streamed free NFL Channel on Southwest many many months ago. And my daughter streamed cartoons from the same service. Both with minimal buffering at the onset and youtube quality video.
My friend did a speed test on JetBlue today and got 20 Mb/s. He isn't very technical so I assume he did the test on his iPhone or iPad. He said there was over 100 devices connected on his flight. He's a JB pilot but was in the back on this flight. He said the service is free until April. Take it for what it is worth.
Not necessarily. If they have a spectrum license that gives them rights nationwide, with rights to spill over into Canada and Mexico, they COULD have 6-12 satellites in low orbit acting like 200 mile high cell towers a-la-Iridium. More likely, though, is that it's a combination of terrestrial wimax uplink and satellite downlink. If they proxied it in a way that sent small files and AJAX traffic over wimax, and large files & streams over satellite, the latency wouldn't be bad at all. Years ago, I worked on a project that did basically that using ISDN for the uplink/limited downlink and Hughes for the bulk downlink. We had some added VPN logic so we could begin streaming responses to the satellite, then abort and just send it back over ISDN if the proxy realized the response was small enough to reach the customer faster via slow ISDN with low latency than via fast satellite with high latency. It actually worked quite well... until Hughes silently amended their secret TOS to define VPN and other "opaque" traffic as "abuse", and FAP'ed it to the point of commercial uselessness (which was always everyone's #1 complaint with Hughes... they'd never actually come out and TELL you what their specific rules were... they'd just lie in wait, then unleash hellfire and vengeance on you for breaking rules they'd barely even admit existed, and would never elaborate upon).
Why should we be forced to ?
Don't get me wrong, I usually sleep or read entertainment stuff (recently for me: either Pratchett or Iain M Banks - I heartily recommend his excellent Culture cycle, BTW) on airplanes, but what this is about is giving people choice in the matter. If you want to relax and "enjoy the peace and quiet", fine ! if you want to connect to the global planetary network, be it for work reasons or entertainment too, you should be given the choice.
I get what you're saying - but you can't say to people they *have* to relax just because they're traveling. I've co-founded and currently lead a small computer sciences startup and given the choice, I'd much prefer to read or sleep when I'm in an airplane. However, there were several times when I *had* to work (in my current job as well as the previous, more traditional / employed one) during travel to make sure I was ready upon arriving, just because I didn't have time before that to do it
Basically, what I'm saying here is: the more choice people have, the better. They might use the network to read their favorite news site (slashdot or some twitter feeds or other), or they might use the network to work, or they might simply relax using an old-fashioned book. The point is, if you add Internet connectivity to your flight, you are simply giving them more choice in the matter, which is good in my book.
I find the transportation icon for this article's category to be ridiculous. The internet IS NOT A TRUCK!
I farted
But the last time I paid for wifi in flight (one of the gogo services on Delta, IIRC) it was way faster than dial-up speed. I was easily able to check email, read the news, search for research papers, and download relevant items during my previous 2.5 hour flight. If it were at dial-up speed I would not have been able to even finish downloading the first of several papers that I found during that flight.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
Why can't people just relax and enjoy the peace and quiet ?
Relax? Not if you're over 5'6" or the person sitting next to you weighs more than 150 lbs. Airline seats are some of the least comfortable places I ever go; I've been more comfortable in porta-potties. If I can't rest I might as well get some work done (provided of course my battery holds out, as I can never seem to get planes with AC for charging my laptop). Bring on the wifi, I say.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
Go to the home page. Scroll down to the bottom. You'll see it.
I'm assuming the Beta site is is sparse because it's, well, beta, and still pretty skeletal.
While I do agree with you, that economy cabin seats could be more roomey and comfortable, I do think that you exaggerate.
I'm 6'1" and around 240 lbs and I have no problem relaxing on a plane. And before you say anything, I'm not spilling over to the person besides me either. What I do is simple: I always (if possible) get a window seat. That way I can lean on to the fuselage wall and away from the person besides me. I stretch my legs underneath the seat in front of me and I fall asleep. If I want to I can be asleep before we even take off.
I admit, if I were to get stuck in a middle row, I would be unhappy. But in the last 250 flights that only happened to me 7 times.
My problem here is that this is announced as something that could be a global first.
It's only new for the Jetblue. Lots of other carriers had this for years and years. I remember I flew with Lufthansa somewhere between 7 and 10 years ago and they were doing this. And yes, I'm fairly sure it was satelite-based since it was on a transatlantic flight. :-)
The only thing is that at that time the service while being free, was fairly useless for economy passengers, since there was no electrical power in the cabin and at that time and my laptop could only go on a couple of hours on batteries, there were no smartphones to speak of and no tablets. Now, however, I still find it useless, since they want to charge for it. And it's my opinion that I pay enough for the flight ticket as is.
http://www.viasat.com/news/high-speed-internet-now-flying-jetblue-launches-service-using-viasat-high-capacity-ka-band-broadband
I remember reading this a year ago or so when the home service launched, but I guess /. missed it. This kind of portable/mobile use is being heavily marketed for homeland security, SNG (Satellite News Gathering), and other high-end markets, while they continue to give the middle finger to RVers, truckers, etc--I guess the home system is locked to the spotbeam its activated on so you can't roam outside it, unlike HughesNet. Personally, I'd love their little portable flyaway system, but at a price of $20k or so, oh well.
While I do agree with you, that economy cabin seats could be more roomey and comfortable, I do think that you exaggerate.
I'm 6'1" and around 240 lbs and I have no problem relaxing on a plane.
I'm 6'3" myself. I am happy if I can get a plane where my knees aren't hitting the seat in front of me. On top of that it appears that every time I fly the reclining ability of the steerage class seats diminishes a bit more; I've had non-bulkhead seats on some recent flights that did not recline at all. I find it nearly impossible to relax in an airline seat now.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
"JetBlue is rolling out a new form of inflight Wi-Fi operating from satellites instead of ground-based cell towers."
No current airline internet system uses cell towers. They are all satellite based.
Actually, it is almost the opposite, at least here in the US. Most airborne data services today are ground based, with satellite services being new and usually reserved for long over water international routes.
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
Well I have to admit that's a lot more data than any normal flight would ever see. So I fully retract my statement and also offer congratulations on what seems to be a pretty excellent system!
I'm sure the latency is not that great as others asked about, but really that will not matter a lot to most people. Plenty good enough for browsing and video use.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I just flew 2 days ago on SouthWest and watched NFL and Discovery Channel the whole way via Wifi with my iPad (3rd gen). No glitches, ran fine. They utilize DishTV receivers I believe and you have about 15-20 channels to chose live broadcast from. You can pay for internet, but seriously, there's nothing so pressing on the Internet I can't wait 2 hours to access (for free at the airport).
Aisle seats work about the same for me, with the added bonus of not needing to climb out over the two people sitting with me if I need to get up for whatever reason. I'll get a little extra room by leaning out into the aisle a bit, except when the stewardesses bring the drink cart past. I usually don't sleep when flying, unless it's a redeye (and I've not flown one of those in a long time).
Middle seats suck colon. Fortunately, they're easy enough to avoid most of the time.
20 January 2017: the End of an Error.
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