JetBlue to Offer WiFi 121
andyring writes "Although some trans-Atlantic flights offer WiFi for a fee, JetBlue has won approval from the FCC to provide WiFi on their flights." From the article: "While Verizon's telephone service aboard commercial planes has not done well because of the high cost to use the phones, there has been interest in offering high-speed Internet access in the air to business travelers. The licenses will not mean travelers can soon use their cell phones in the air. The FCC and Federal Aviation Administration are still weighing whether to permit that."
Not necessarily being used for free wifi (Score:4, Informative)
"A spokesman from JetBlue said he was unable to comment on what the company plans to do with its 1MHz license. Some speculate it will offer more in-flight video entertainment and Internet services. JetBlue already offers DirecTV service on its flights."
The way the post is written makes it sound like JetBlue is giving free WiFi on their flights. Not only is it not stated it will be free, but it's not stated it will be WiFi, just that they won some wireless spect.
Been there done that (Score:5, Informative)
I can't sleep on planes, so it was great to check my e-mail and get holiday photos ready on the plane on the way back too instead of losing time.
Also there was an important notice that no ad-hoc connections were allowed for safety reasons, although how valid those were (I suspect: not very) I don't know.
Re:So instead of cell phone... (Score:3, Informative)
Flying in first isn't hoing to solve anything and NR headphones are much better at regular, low frequency sounds than they are at voice. Also, they get a little tedious to wear for 10+ hours or while trying to sleep.
Check out a frequent flyer web site like flyertalk.com and see what regular travelers think of phones on planes. The sentiment is very much against them, probably over 90%. Yeah, if you travel 1-2x a year, it no skin off your nose. It's a different story when it's more like 10-20 hrs/week.
They Blue It (Score:2, Informative)
Expect every packet on their WiFi to be sniffed, analyzed and sent to the highest bidder. Including, but not limited to, DHS.
Re:So instead of cell phone... (Score:3, Informative)
I certainly hope they keep cell phones off of flights...(and even though they work on most flights, they are a HUGE strain on the tower network on the ground which is not designed to deal with calls from airplanes.
Re:So instead of cell phone... (Score:2, Informative)
At least Amtrak gets this right.
Re:So instead of cell phone... (Score:1, Informative)
The summary is totally wrong (Score:4, Informative)
First, it's not about Wi-Fi, it's about air-to-ground broadband. More on that in a second.
Second, JetBlue won the smaller of two licenses sold at auction.
Third, it'll be up to two years before service commences.
The auction determined which of three exclusive spectrum configurations would win out. The winning versions was 3 MHz to AC BidCo LLC, a sister company with AirCell, and 1 MHz to JetBlue. The 3 MHz license was widely seen as the desirable one because using standard EVDO Rev. A, there should be over 1.5 Mbps available in each direction. (The FCC designed the new licenses to handle EVDO and a few other standards, and the allotted spectrum is split symmetrically in air-to-ground and ground-to-air segments.)
JetBlue, the owners of license winners LiveTV, will likely use its approximately 500 Kbps downstream to carry streaming video or to spool video for inflight use through cached content. Upstream could be used for cabin surveillance and aircraft use. JetBlue might roll out this technology to other airlines.
AirCell already runs a general aviation (non-commercial) air-station network for in-flight broadband, and will be able now to cut deals with all the major airlines that want this. Their ultimate system should be lightweight (thus not a big fuel drag) and desirable.
Wi-Fi has to be tested separately, by the way. They won't be able to just turn this on. The FCC and FAA will require them to test their equipment with specific airlines and planes in order to roll it out.
With dual-mode cell phones (cell + Wi-Fi) plus Skype and other VoIP services on laptops plus Wi-Fi-only handsets, it will be likely that calling in flight will be very common.
The other part of this deal is that Verizon AirFone, which controls parts of the 4 MHz that was auctioned off, now has up to two years to move from 4 MHz to a vertically polarized 1 MHz (overlapping with LiveTV's license). License winners are allowed to give Verizon financial incentives to move faster. AirFone is on 4,500 planes, including government ones, and is highly underused. With this move to new equipment, AirFone might dramatically drop its pricing...or airlines might ask for the equipment to be entirely removed.
Would you rather typing or talking? (Score:2, Informative)
For all the disparaging remarks:
a) Yes, there really are emails/phone calls that are worth $5+/minute. This sounds stupid but when you can answer a question in $10 worth of time that saves a $500k contract then yes, all of a sudden $50/flight seems reasonable (and unfortunately this happens more often than sane/rational people would like to imagine)
b) I would much rather get an email and reply (quietly) in kind then spend 30 minutes going "could you repeat that, you broke up" until the person next to me bludgeon me over the head with nearest available blunt object.
Finally, if you're a control freak who's never been on a 10+ hour flight to (insert deity(s) of choice) knows where... STFU. You have no idea what it's like to be stuffed in a aluminum cigar tube with no contact to the outside world and minion's doing who knows what to your servers while you're out of touch (yes, yes... in a perfect world I'd subjugate minions who were better than I but in my company the checkbook rules all)
Regards,
A very, very bitter techie.