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U.S. Airlines to Offer In-Air Wi-Fi
Journal written by brian.gunderson (1012885) and posted by
Zonk
on Tue Apr 03, 2007 01:41 PM
from the careful-stewardess-i-am-blogging-this dept.
from the careful-stewardess-i-am-blogging-this dept.
"Within the next year, US Airlines are going to be offering Wi-Fi service onboard flights. VoiP calls will be banned initially, but the article mentions that lifting the ban on cellphones may still be a possibility. 'AirCell will install equipment on airliners that will act as a WiFi hotspot in the cabin and connect to laptop computers and devices like BlackBerrys that have WiFi chips. In all, it will cost about $100,000 to outfit a plane with less than 100 pounds of equipment, and the work can be done overnight by airline maintenance workers, AirCell says. What makes the service particularly attractive to airlines is that they will share revenue with AirCell. The service will cost about the same as existing WiFi offerings. Mr. Blumenstein says it will charge no more than $10 a day to passengers. It will also offer discounted options for customers and tie into existing service programs like T-Mobile, iPass and Boingo. Speeds will be equivalent to WiFi service on the ground.'"
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Technology: FCC, FAA Still Don't Want Cell Phones on Planes 300 comments
mattnyc99 writes "Last month we learned that the UK has approved in-flight mobile, effective immediately. Popular Mechanics has a follow-up on why the phones-on-planes ban is here to stay in the United States. Statements from the FCC and FAA confirm that any chance to overturn it remains dead on arrival — even though new "pico-cell" networks cut down interference with phones on the ground. American Airlines is looking like it will have onboard Wi-Fi within the next couple months, just the same. PM does note, however, that if the European mobile rollout is a success, US carriers might just have to give into demand."
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About time this came around. (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:About time this came around. (Score:5, Informative)
This should help:
http://www.seatguru.com/ [seatguru.com]
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Here's hoping they keep phone calls banned (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Here's hoping they keep phone calls banned (Score:4, Funny)
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Re:Here's hoping they keep phone calls banned (Score:5, Funny)
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Re: (Score:3, Informative)
But at least then you would only have interesting calls (for geeks, anyway).
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
No need to bother. (Score:3, Funny)
foreach my $passenger (@passengers) {
if (passenger_talking_on_phone($passenger)) {
stewardess_action($passenger,PHONE_USE);
}
}
}
sub stewardess_action {
my $passenger = shift;
my $action = shift;
switch ($action) {
case EMPTY_GLASS:
fill_glass();
Sweet... just what I need... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Personally, I'd rather have a cell phone jerk on a plane sitting next to me than a screaming child ten rows away from me.
Of course with the "THINK OF CHILDREN!" attitude, no one throws unruly children off the plane. Oh wait... They did once [msn.com]
But I personally wish people they would have an airline that allowed only those 10 or older and charge a bit more. I don't know why movie theaters do that either...
Cellphone ban lift? PLEASE NO!!! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:I'm thinking about... (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm thinking about the 5 hour cross country flight, sitting next to the the ass that is either so stupid that he can't figure out that a $.50 pair of ear plugs would solve his problems,
Game theory, buddy. You making your incessant inane calls gives you slight benefit while annoying the hell out of about 100 people around you. Thus, not worth it. If everyone talks constantly on their phones during a long flight it's worse for everyone.
or is so self centered that he thinks everybody else should modify their behavior in public places because trying to force his desired behavior on everyone else
It seems to be the desired behavior of the masses - I've never seen anyone who enjoyed listening to a cacophony of cell calls - so that's democracy for you. Forcing societal norms on assholes since 1776.
seems like a better idea than putting in a $.50 pair of ear plugs.
Sure does, that's not particularly comfortable. I don't want to have to stick shit in my ears for 5 hours because you can't shut the **** up for 10 consecutive minutes.
You're not so damned important that you can't wait until you get on the ground. In the rare case that someone is, their company will reimburse them for the exorbitant back-of-the-seat phone.
I just wish that airlines would start offering free ear plugs, so we could all stop listening to the incessant whining of a bunch of intellectually challenged self centered ass holes.
The self-centered one is the dipshit who thinks his desires are more important than those of the 100 people around him. That would be you.
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Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:I'm thinking about... (Score:4, Insightful)
Why do these cell-phone-people stand out, and why is this even trickier on planes? Several theories:
1) restaurants (and planes) are areas where it has traditionally been impossible and/or impolite to be on the telephone. People are paying quite a bit of money to enjoy their meal/trip, and expect some level of decorum from those around them.
2) When conversing with someone who is next to you, they can also observe the atmosphere and tailor the conversation (content, volume, laughter, emotion) to be appropriate. One party is probably not on the plane, and the party who is tends to get lost in conversation and converse without this regard. Is it the person on the planes responsibility to be polite? Yes. Do cell phones foster this behavior? I say no.
3) WHAT?!?!??! I'M ON THE AIRPLANE? CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?
4) In a restaurant and in an airplane people often try to converse, get business done, and eat. But planes have other considerations also. People try to watch movies (and no, headphones don't cancel out loud talking), sleep, read, or work diligently on their laptops. Some of these things are pretty hard to do when a large percentage of people are on the phone.
5) Extremely confined spaces mean people can be more irritable, and also require more consideration of others. Airplanes make quite a large number of people nervous, since they often combine numerous phobias/anxieties into one ordeal. Activities which foster respect, quiet, calm, and polite behavior should be fostered (such as movies, reading, sleeping, eating, headphone-music), and activities which don't shouldn't be (everyone on their cell phone, first-class vs coach rugby, or a lan party). Although those things may be rather fun on a plane, they're not exactly calm-enducing
Is there a middle road? Yes, and the airlines have a responsibility to try to promote it. Loud cell phone conversations should be given warnings, and then barred from use on 2nd or 3rd offense. On long haul flights, specific blocks of time should be set aside as no-cell-phone period, say when the lights go out for nap time or a movie is playing. Having some mention of these things by the crew serves a reminder that cell-phone politeness is really important on a plane. Staff shouldn't lie about why cell phones aren't allowed during certain periods, though, that's counter productive.
Do I think airlines care about these things? Maybe. They probably care more about money, though, and that's why they're going in the direction they're going (i.e., no VoIP on wifi, pay for cell phone service, encourage seat-back phone use, etc). As someone who tries to get things done on a plane (business, reading, etc) I welcome the option to use my cell phone at a reasonable rate, but I also feel that I'd be less-productive if everyone (including myself) turns plane rides into Verizon commercials.
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Re:I'm thinking about... (Score:4, Insightful)
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Re:I'm thinking about... (Score:4, Interesting)
Yes, you could issue earplugs to everyone, but why should they alter what they're doing because you're being offensive? If you happen to riddle your speech with profanity, and go to a grade school, the accepted solution is not for you to expect all the children to wear earplugs, it's for you to recognize the social norms of the environment you're in and modify your behavior to match.
Of course, why is the guy next to you an ass for being bothered by your behavior? He's not doing anything offense, he's reacting to something you're doing he finds offensive.
You don't have a right to talk on a cell phone, and you do have a responsibility to your fellow humans.
Parent
Laptops and phones on planes (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Laptops and phones on planes (Score:5, Interesting)
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sweet (Score:3, Funny)
Sweet! (Score:2)
Counter strike (Score:5, Funny)
W00T! (Score:2)
It's not a revolution folks! (Score:2)
Not so new. Rather than true progress this is merely a catch up.
How do you do that? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:How do you do that? (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:How do you do that? (Score:4, Funny)
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Nice try, no donut! (Score:3, Informative)
$4,500,000,000 - At only $100k per plane x 4500 planes that fly in the North America area. (guess)
$xx millions - Wireless spectrum
Well, even with simplified math, that works out to hundreds of millions of user-day revenue just to pay back infrastructure investment. Where is the business plan for that?
Re:Nice try, no donut! (Score:5, Informative)
A simpler way to look at it, however: 6% interest on $100,000 is about $20 per day. If you depreciate the equipment over 5 years, that adds another $60 or so per day. If you figure that the average user will take about 2 flights in a day, you earn about $5 per user per flight. Your average airplane makes about 10 flights in a day giving you a potential customer base of 200 x 10 = 2000. You only need to sell to about 16 of those to pay for the capital costs. If you think you're going to get a higher attach rate than that (and I think you are), this is worth doing. Put in intangibles such as product differentiation and customer loyalty and you're far ahead of your costs.
Parent
online is online (Score:4, Insightful)
Um, $100,000 ? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
And when I say "easy part", that's relatively speaking. There's still tons and tons of tests to ensure that the wireless access does nothing to interfere with the plane's instruments or communication.
Doesn't Jetblue offer this already? (Score:5, Interesting)
We were stuck in a traffic jam on the road, a good 20 miles from the nearest town. I pulled out my laptop to scan for wireless signals, and see exactly how 'isolated' this area was.
Surprisingly, I found several Access Points with names like 'JetBlue1203' and 'JetBlue1609'. These signals would start at low-strength, the signal would grow stronger, peak for about 5 minutes, and then drop off in strength--- almost as if they were coming from an Airplane overhead.
I suppose these AP's could have come from some other car on the road; but people generally don't run Access Points in their Car.
Traffic was at a standstill--- if the signal was coming from a nearby house or from a car on our side of the road; I would expect the signal to remain level for a longer period of time.
If the signal was coming from a car on the opposite side of the road, I would expect the signal quality to rise and fall quickly. In fact, I could detect a number of 'Ad-Hoc' wireless signals from some misconfigured Laptops-- those signals would zoom by pretty quickly (other side of the road), or remain stable (My side of the road).
I never investigated these further, but I always assumed these 'JetBlue####' Access Points were from JetBlue Airplanes, and I was lucky enough to be within line-of-sight of these signals. The airplanes were a few miles above us, which seems pretty distant for a Wifi signal... But still these Access Points had names like 'JetBlue'. What the heck were they?
So they've been lying to us? (Score:3, Interesting)
Are wireless devices going to cause the plane to crash or not?
If i can cause the plane to crash using my iPod during takeoff, why can i now use WiFi during the flight?
This all goes to show you why the asshole that refused to put away his iPod or laptop when told to was always right, and the stewdresses and do-gooder sheeple sitting around the cabin ratting them out are the real dumbasses.
Who has room? (Score:5, Insightful)
$50 bucks to the first person..... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Why are phones still banned (Score:5, Funny)
Phones should always be banned on a plane. I can't think of anything more annoying than listening to dozens of conversations going on around me while I try to sleep.
"Hi Mom!"
...
"No, the plane just took off"
...
"Well, it was all right, but our flight out of Amsterdam was delayed. I have NEVER seen an airport backed up like that before"
...
"All-in-all, the trip was OK, but I am SO GLAD it is over"
...
"Well, for one, Linette was SUCH a B-I-T-C-H for this ENTIRE trip. I was so happy when she caught her connecting flight at JFK."
...
"Well, she used to be so nice, but, ever since her an Darren broke up, it has been a nightmare"
...
"He cheated on her!
...
"I KNOW! And he seemed to be so nice"
...
"He slept with NICOLE, of all people"
I beg the powers-that-be to never, ever allow the use of cell phones on a plane. It will be enough for many of us to slit our wrists.
Parent
Re:Why are phones still banned (Score:5, Funny)
That will be twice as much chatter!!!!
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Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I spent seven years traveling on a plane as part of my business. While it would have been nice to be able to conduct some business on the phone, the fact is, there are very few phone calls that can't wait for the three hours until you land.
I can imagine that right now, you are saying to yourself "Puh-leese! I HAVE to make that
Re:Why are phones still banned (Score:4, Insightful)
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Re:Why are phones still banned (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:Why are phones still banned (Score:4, Insightful)
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Re:I'd love to see... (Score:4, Informative)
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Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Much more flexible...
X.
Re:Gaming on a plane (Score:4, Informative)
Have you even heard a real gun before? I guarantee you that the air marshals have.
Parent
Re:$10 a 'day'? (Score:4, Insightful)
Those services listed all cost about $10 per day and at most airports they are your only wireless internet options; for instance, here in Atlanta when you connect to the wireless network you can only access the airport information site and the menu of wifi providers so you can purchase one of their internet service packages. It sucks (especially since I used to live in Pittsburgh where they offer it for free), however, it seems like the market has shown that it will support a price of $10 to connect to the internet during your air travel, so it only makes sense that when they are extending the airport wifi structure to the actual airplane they use the same distribution mechanisms and the same pricing scheme.
Parent