Internet on an airplane

Is that just domestic or international flights as well, Brad?

sound awesome, its a pity id have to be smashed out of my mind to ever get on the plane to begin with  

So that is why it now costs money to cary on more than one bag

man wireless isn't  that great, my friend has it and he gets disconnected when we are playing games together, thats why i have no wireless.

It may not be great, but it works in a pinch.  Like, say, when you are thousands of feet above the earth.  Can't hardwire that.

As far as i know ther are three types of wireless, which type does he have?

Cell phone 3g-4g. Fairly high ping, depends on how far you are from a tower.

Wireless 2.4ghz from a tower. Low ping under 200ping.

Sattelite internet high ping 900ping.

Plus f you have wifi that may add some ping.

Man, Boeing should never have dropped their bid to create service.  That would've been a very profitable business.  Criminy, the only thing that's kept Boeing up lately has been the missteps of the other aerospace companies.

We can have wireless, but we can't have cell phones.   Go figure that one out.

I called my wife via Skype from the airplane.

I wonder if Vonage would work on that?

My best understanding:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phones_on_aircraft#USA_Channel_reuse

The EMF issue is a touchy one.  Self-righteous tech users sputter angrily and reference Mythbusters and the like.  While they're right that most of the stuff on a modern jet is shielded, it's not guaranteed for all aircraft in the sky (that's everything made since 1903), nor does it guarantee that there is no interference at all times for all situations for all EM bands.  The anecdotal evidence remains inconclusive in spite of the fact that nothing definitive has been found.  So to keep things easy, electronics are off during critical phases of flight.  And being quite familiar with the workload during those times, I as a pilot do NOT want to be troubleshooting ghosts in the guidance in a high traffic area in the clouds during time-critical maneuvering.

Go figure everyone in the airplane using his/her cellphone and doing calls. No, thanks. I have been on flights twice every week last year (Dusseldorf - Leeds and back) and I would have gone mad completely because I bet EVERYONE would have been talking during the 45 minutes we were allowed to use our electrical devices... And You know how some people wouldn't need a phone as they are loud enough the other person could hear them nevertheless....

What is the pricing structure?  It was available on our flights (one each way) from the east coast to SD, but I had enough other stuff to do and did not want to bother with it.

@c242:  That's why texting exists.  It's a polite way of carrying on a conversation without bothering people around you.  It's perfectly reasonable if you're in close quarters to say "Pardon me, but would you mind too terribly taking it to text?  The conversation is getting a little distracting, thanks."

That would be awesome

Internet access on a plane is awesome though

Oh and wireless signal is pretty much the same up to 15 feet. I'm like 200 feet away from my router and there are tons of obstructions in the way, and I still get 40% signal strength. (This is 4/5 bars in Vista, but it's really only 40% of the strength of a hardwired connections)

Satellite internet is basically just a big, high powered router with a really well made reflector. If they could build cassegrain receivers into computers we would all have great internet via satellite everywhere on Earth. I predict that 20 years from now, most users will use satellite internet at twice the speed we have now on wired connections.

I'm suprised Apple isn't marketing hardware targeting air travelers.........wait for it.......the iFloat

Instead of WiFi...iFly.

Latency with satellite will tend to keep it as a secondary source.

Though I guess you could put swarms of cheap satellites in lower orbit, that would help. Along with being crowded.

http://www.natural-environment.com/blog/2008/04/16/images-of-earth-surrounded-in-space-junk/

hahaha, My new desktop background. Looks like a new cause for AGW

I found out someone was videoconferencing on the plane using the wireless, and a flight attendant said you can't do that.  You're not supposed to converse with people on the ground, because someone might be coordinating with a terrorist.   The flight attendant showed him the policy manual. 

You've got to be s***ing me.

Strange - because the guidelines I saw said it was to be used mostly for Email and such (I guess IM is included?  Or not, does not matter) as a matter of courtesy to your fellow travelers (bandwidth).  Well, I do not need to VC with a terrorist to email him a note saying "passing over the Grand Canyon".  It may be policy, but the stated reason is hogwash.

Doesn't seem likely considering the cost of deploying a satellite network to handle high user volumes and high bandwidth without also having high latency. Fibre optics are simply easier to deploy.

Not to mention that to break high latency from satellite you would need to go faster then the speed of light.