Boeing Gets FCC Approval For Broadband Service

lba writes "Boeing's plans to offer broadband on their planes (as in this earlier /. article) gets into the next phase... BBC News has a story about them now getting FCC approval for this project. Protoypes of Connexion, as the service is called, would be installed on Lufthansa planes in about a year. Three US Airline companies canceled their support for the project last November."

Live Streaming Ass-Kicking!

[Tackhead]

Woohoo! Next time some terrorist waltzes through airport security and the passengers kick his ass, we get live streaming video!

The main benefit

[Anonymous Coward]

Is that the seats will be wider to accomodate the extra wiring and laptop-platform. Of course, all the pictures I've seen of this setup have people turned 90 degrees to the side making it a little hard on the back. Then again, a little lower back pain will go nicely with my carpal tunnel.

Boeing's areas of commerce

[MathJMendl]

First lightning fast air travel, then lightning fast internet access. What's next, lightning fast pizza delivery?

This will go over well ...

[Rev.LoveJoy]

With out new "anti-terrorism" laws.

I can just see a bunch of headphone'd CS freaks on their laptops screaming at the top of their lungs, "OH YEAH, YOU WANT SOME?! FUCKING DIE! SUCK THE SNOT END OF MY FUCKSTICK YOU PUKE!!"

while the beverage cart rolls by ...

Cheers,
- RLJ

New Twist...

[gnovos]

A whole new twist on drive-by wireless hackings... War Flying!

New way to crash an airplaine

[embobo]

root@laptop:# ping -f cockpit

"This is your captain speaking. Would whoever is ping flooding the cockpit please stop? I'm trying to telnet to the altimeter and the packets are being dropped. I'm not sure, but I think we are about to hit Mount Rushmore."

Re:New way to crash an airplaine

[AnimeFreak]

How about hacking Microsoft Flight Simulator to take over the cockpit entirely?

Or X-Wing in that matter.

Wha???

[schon]

We Americans are the most wired country in the world

Can you back that up with a reference?

A quick search tells me that Finland [www.stat.fi] is #1.

Or were you using the term "world" as in "world series" (which apparently means "USA - and maybe Canada occasionally if we're feeling particularly generous")?

In-Flight Announcements Of The Future!

[Freneticus]

(inside the plane of the future ...)

Stewardess- "Ladies and gentlemen, if you'll please look at the color code bar fastened against your seat backs, you can tell whether you have been seated in your requested section or not. Please recall that all seats with a gold border are regions 1-3, all seats with a silver border are region 4-6, and all seats with slate border are not allowed access. Remember, color denotes permissable access. Red bars denote pornography, blue bars denote warez, green bars denote live video feeds of you looking at the green bars, orange bars denote a block on port 6667, yellow bars denote smoking *and* pornography, and purple bars denote seats not yet installed with broadband access. Also, remember that the color beige does not actually signify anything; that is the color of seatbacks without digital panels. Please do not request assistance on manipulating your seatback. No matter how hard you push, it will not sprout a flat panel display. Thank you for observing all regulations."

@home ex-customers flock to the air

[LM741N]

"Addicted to 1Mb/s download rates, former @home customers appear in droves at airports, hoping to get a taste of the high bandwidth connections"

Re:This will go over well ...

[ender81b]

better yet they turn up the volume on their laptop just to add to the fun as the cart rolls on buy

*Cover me!*
BOOM!
*Need backup*
RAT-TAT-TAT
*The Bomb has been planted*
At this point I imagine their would be some sort of incident.. involving sedation. and belts.

Re:Wrong investment

[nomadic]

I'd rather have the broadband, and no food. Or just let us bring our own. Why on earth would I need a meal on a 3 hour flight? Do they think that we all need to eat every 2 hours or we die?

You can bring your own food...

[ErikTheRed]

So many people thing airplanes are like movie theatres (although things may have tightened up since 9-11). Personally, I like to buy a box of piping hot Cinnabons and slowly consume them during the first 90 minutes of the flight... The smell makes everyone for 10 rows in both directions think really evil thoughts about me!

Re:I don't want to be pessimistic

[Lumpy]

actually quite simple. 1 linux box and 1 802.11 accesspoint. the linux box will dhcp everyone and if they cant get it to work the stweard's response will be "sucks to be you, want some peanuts?" needs no admin except when it lands and needs updates because some script kiddie was riding with his parents and 0wn3d the box on the flight from DC to Chicago.

Re:Boeing's areas of commerce

[haruharaharu]

What's next, lightning fast pizza delivery?

Always tip a pizza guy driving the Deliverator.