U.S. Airlines to Offer In-Air Wi-Fi

"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.'"

Here's hoping they keep phone calls banned

I hope phone calls stay banned. Airline flights are bad enough without having to listen to one side of a hundred phone conversations.

Re:Here's hoping they keep phone calls banned

Will it help if I turn the speakerphone on?

Re:Here's hoping they keep phone calls banned

The Onion said it best [theonion.com] the last time this issue came up: "If they lift the ban on cell-phone use, they better lift the ban on passengers beating the shit out of each other, too."

Cellphone ban lift? PLEASE NO!!!

Imagine a 5 hour cross country flight, sitting next to some idiot yapping at the top of his voice on his cell phone. That after having to strip down, empty your bags, and submit to a body cavity search just to get through security. That cross country road trip is sounding better and better every day...

Re:I'm thinking about...

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.

Re:I'm thinking about...

People, generally, speak very differently to others while in their presence than they do while on the phone. Let's look at the example of a moderately busy restaurant at lunchtime (not, say, TGIF during happy hour or kids-eat-free day at IHOP). Most of the time the "annoying" people in the restaurant are people on cell phones.

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.

Re:I'm thinking about...

It may be a "public" place but the poor bastard next to you can't just get up and walk away if your talking irritates him. Your "right" to talk and his "right" to peace and quiet are going to conflict. How you both deal with that will be interesting, especially if your seat-mate is as reasonable, accommodating and willing to compromise as you seem to be.

Re:I'm thinking about...

Sounds a lot like the argument die-hard smokers make about their "right" to smoke.

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.

Counter strike

Playing counter-strike will now be even more realistic. Imagine the kids screaming "haha, I'm going to blow this plane, you faggots!!!11" inside the plane. And the real CT squad goes berserker and pull their weapons. Pure pwnage!

online is online

So what will keep someone with an internal wireless (cellular) broadband card in their laptop from using it, and claiming they are on the planes wi-fi network? To the passive observer, there would really be no way to tell the difference. Using cellular in a plane makes it explode or something, right?

Um, $100,000 ?

Why does it cost 100 grand for a plane?

Doesn't Jetblue offer this already?

A few months ago we were driving up I-5 in California.

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?

Who has room?

I find all this talk of internet access in economy hilarious. On most flights with the seat pitch what it is I can barely open a paperback book on the tray table. My laptop? Forget it!! It stays in the overhead bin.

Re:About time this came around.

Maybe you should try a bit harder to pick your flights & airlines. American Airlines has seat power on all of its airplanes.

This should help:
http://www.seatguru.com/ [seatguru.com]

Re:Why are phones still banned

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.

Re:Why are phones still banned

I can't believe they are going to let people talk to each other on planes. Just think how bad it is going to be when you hear both sides of the conversation.

That will be twice as much chatter!!!!

Re:Why are phones still banned

Use VoIP now. Just tunnel it through SSH or some other protocol. I hate people talking on the phone as much as the next guy, but I'd make a call just to spite them.

Re:Why are phones still banned

From what I have read and heard airline employees saying, the signals can mess up internal electronics on the plane. I always thought that that was bull

That's not as funny as the cell phones can cause a gas station to explode myth... For cripes sake there's a battery under the hood of a car... And more electronics in a car than in a cell phone...

Re:How do you do that?

Didn't you hear? VoIP packets interfere with the navigation of the plane. Do you want to kill us all, you fool?

Re:How do you do that?

It interferes with the profit centers on the plane.

Re:I'd love to see...

They don't need to block it, they just have to tell the guy on the phone to shut the fuck up.

Re:Gaming on a plane

There is absolutely no way that a laptop carried on a plane can simulate the sound of a real shotgun or rocket.

Have you even heard a real gun before? I guarantee you that the air marshals have.

Re:$10 a 'day'?

Maybe you didn't read the summary or you don't fly much but from the summary:

It will also offer discounted options for customers and tie into existing service programs like T-Mobile, iPass and Boingo.

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.

Re:Nice try, no donut!

100,000 x 4500 = $450,000,000 (You had one too many zeros)

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.

Re:Laptops and phones on planes

I have a hard time believing that. If a WiMAX connection messed up airline naviagtion, the towers on the ground would be screwing them up whether a device was on the plane or not. Now, I know that they are not a definitive source of info, but the Mythbusters episode where they tried to interfere with an planes instruments with cell phones and other radio equipment, they showed that it is just not going to happen. They had to do some pretty serious work to get the plane's equipment to a state that it could be affected by non-intentional interference. Look at it this way. If you could crash an airplane by hitting it with consumer level radio waves, don't you think we would be seeing a lot more planes going down? Why take a shoe bomb on a plane. Just turn on a battery operated radio transmitter.