High Speed In The High Skies

[Brad Adrian]

<a href="http://www.boeing.com/news/releases/2002/q2/nr_020507j.html">http://www.boeing.com/news/releases/2002/q2/nr_020507j.html</a><br /><br />Boeing has just announced that they have recieved Federal Aviation Administration certification of their new in-flight high-speed connectivity network, called "Connexion by Boeing." The network is aimed at providing airline passengers the ability to access the Internet and e-mail systems at near-DSL speeds while in the air.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/boeing.jpg" /><br /><br />I especially like the flair with which the final FAA paperwork was handled:<br /><br />"In an industry first, the final test summary paperwork necessary for certification was e-mailed to FAA officials in Los Angeles via the satellite communication link from the Connexion One airplane, while flying 35,000 feet above New Mexico. The document and supporting material, totaling 800 kilobytes, were transmitted to FAA officials in real-time in less than 30 seconds..."<br /><br />Initially, the product will serve primarily high-end private planes, like corporate jets. But this surely paves the way for the rest of us to eventually be able to be even more productive while traveling. To me, this is really exciting, because even though I can currently work with my Pocket PC while in flight, there are still many times when I really need to send and receive messages, synchronize or connect to other networks. (Now, if only they could do SOMETHING about those in-flight meals.)<br /><br />One important remaining question, of course, is how much this would cost travelers like you and me. Personally, I'd be willing to pony up a few bucks on a long flight in order to maintain connectivity. But, I'm sure this service will start out a bit pricey. I'd probably be willing to spend (and be able to justify on an expense report) a total of about $10 on a long -- 4 or 5 hour -- flight. How about you?

[Sven Johannsen]

I think you are dreaming on your pricing. You gotta figure this is going to be a per minute hit. Your $10 on a 4 hour flight would be less than 4.2 cents a minute. You can't even make a long distance call for that on the ground.

For some idea of what air phone rates are for the current lash up, see
http://www.airfone.com/airfone/general_rates.html.

[Venturello]

Yep... I would pay 10 bucks for 4 hours JUST for web browsing, even if I had no work to do.

Too cheap, probably we will never see it this low.

It will be per minute, and expensive enough to be only used very little...

Too sad... but bandwidth like this is expensive. I hope they prove me wrong, but I doubt it.

[Rob Alexander]

The real answer is likely to be two to four times that of an economy class ticket. Odds are this is something that would only be available in business and first class for lots of years before it's available at all in economy.

[klinux]

800K in 30 seconds? How many people can realistically connect at that speed?

[entropy1980]

That connection speed is bologna! My professor for my wireless class is the key systems engineer who put this project together he says the bandwidth is split between all flights offering the service.... I got a peek at the plans ( he brought them in to demonstrate some architecture in motion) anyway the plans call for 1 satelite to split it's bandwidth between all flights offering the service..... figuring an average of 10 users per flight or less your looking at more like 36-56k speeds... and don't even get me started on the latency! Nice idea but the cost of implementation kills it from being done properly which would entail more satelites.

[Pony99CA]

Whoever answered "Nothing" in the poll is dreaming (unless he really has no use for Internet access).

I'd happily pay $20 (maybe more) for a four-hour flight. That's only $5.00 per hour, which isn't unreasonable, especially if you get the claimed data rates. I got taken for more than twice that for a 15-minute cab ride in India. :-)

Now think about this. For your $20, you could make *four hours* of Internet-based phone calls, assuming there are still any free phone services. Even if there aren't any free services, you could make NetMeeting calls, use AOL Instant Messenger's voice chat, etc.

That would blow AirFone's $2.00 per minute data fee out of the water. Of course, that's also why you won't see such reasonable pricing. :-(

Steve

[Sven Johannsen]

I don't understand the bandwidth spec detractors? 800KB/30sec is only 213Kbits per sec. That is not unreasonable for one user. I routinely get that on my Sprint broadband, which is a wireless (RF) technology, and shared.

The bigger technological hurdle here was latency on a full duplex satellite link.

[klinux]

Exactly, Sven, it may be OK for one user but how many people can connect at that? Granted, I would imagine they could cache 100 GB worth of most commonly accessed web sites like CNN, MSNBC, etc and use the bandwidth for e-mail, the non-cached sites, and updates to the cache. Maybe they will charge by the KB?

[karen]

I imagine the charges will be something like 4-5 bucks minute, similar to the wireless phone rates on most flights..although United is down to $2 per minute on data calls, albeit at 9600 baud. :P

I tested the Tenzing offerings on Air Canada flights during several trips during their test period. Tenzing works for e-mail, via a compression proxy, and only to a few websites that are mirrored in an onboard server. I believe that AC ditched it after surveying travellers and finding out that people didn't want to pay $50 a flight just to receive e-mail bodies (no attachments).

I would rather see more airport-based land hookups for most of my 2-3 hour flights. I could check e-mail on the ground, work on otherthings and responses during the flight, and hookup to send everything when I landed.

Look how long inflight phones have been around and look around and see how many people use them for more than "we're two hours late taking off so check with the airline before you pick me up" calls.

On longer flights, say 10 hours or more, I might use this service, but the real problem is going to be power. Air Canada has only a tiny number of planes with power at the seat in Cow Class. I was on a flight last week where four seats in each row had power, but that was only because AC picked up a deal on a new Aer Lingus plane. If it had been originally ordered by AC, there'd be nothing there.

[Arne Hess]

Lufthansa recently announced more details on its Air Internet service. They will offer W-LAN as well as wired LAN access.

Read more here: http://www.ppcw.net/stories.php?story=02/05/10/5072262