Experience with Connexion by Boeing

Ok, yesterday was my second flight with internet availability. On the first one back in Feb it didn't work at all. On this one it started working an hour or so after takeoff but then it stopped just after lunch for nearly 4 hours and was out until we were over Canada.

I think I was the only person using it at least in C class. Because I talked to the purser and suggested rebooting the system. I think she would have said, let me check with the other passengers. She mentioned that there was a "shadowing effect" at certain latitudes. This was ARN-EWR so quite a northerly route.

Any other better experience with this?

I complained to CBB via chat when it came up and they were very accomodating. I think they will refund the $30 at least. I was worried because I had promised to email a document by the end of the day European time. Luckily the system came up around 17:30 CET.

There was zero availability on CPH-SIN a couple of weeks ago - all marketing related to inflight Internet had been pulled too, so I suspect they had some technical problems on this particular aircraft.

Anyway, really a major inconvenience when you've already become semi-reliant on inflight Internet!

In fact I primarily chose SK because of this, otherwise I much prefer the SQ nonstop. (except for the crummy dep time from CPH)

Hei

Theres an A340 that internet has never worked on at all, have been on that aircraft only once.

The service sometimes disappear around the beginning of Greenland flying CPH-ORD, but it usually comes back after an hour or so.

On CPH/ARN-EWR it has worked 100% for me.

Have used the service 11 times total, it has worked 100% 7 times.

I think thats pretty good.

I have used the system multiple times now - and I am quite a happy user. The ability to surf the web and access e-mails 11km above Greenland is quite fantastic.

Two minor issues:
1) I have had glitches drop-out in some (northern areas)
2) The usual SAS problem about starting up their internet and entertainment service long after take-off and shutting it down long before landing. I still do not understand the reason for this.

What about speed? I noticed that it was pretty sluggish. When it came up again I ran a speed test: 190 kbps.

Yes, that's annoying, especially that they turn off the power. I often have to ask them to turn it on.

But the LAN seems to work on the ground and you have to wait until the aircraft has to reach a certain altitude. I got the impression that the crew does not do anything to activate the connection.

The speed usually is around 200-300 kbps, sometimes a little slower. Its more than enough for surfing and e-mail. I also stream NRK radio without a problem. Not super broadband, but a lot better than dial-up

190kbps must be considered a great speed considering that you are up in the air and that the signal is being bounced of a satellite. If it gives a sluggish impression, then that is more likely to be due to the long delay in the transmission to the ground. I did some testing on a Lufthansa flight over Russia, and the delay was getting close to 1 second at times, but around 0.6 seconds most of the time. When surfing and clicking around on different pages a long delay can really make things feel slow even if the data transfer itself is quite fast.

I had some hard drive problems and had to reinstall Windows. So I needed to redownload my inbox, which had maybe 20 MB of email (some large attachments). I had been at my summer house so avoided doing that with dial-up and decided to wait until I got on the plane.

So it should take 14 min based on 190 kbps but I swear it took a lot longer (or did I have more than 20 MB?). So I wonder what the average over a longer download might be.

But CBB should not say that it has the same speed as an "office LAN". That's what the support guy told me was the "company line".

I was aware of the latency issue with satellite but I was not really "surfing" that much, and did expect higher download speed, which was important to me on this flight. I wonder if this performance is consistent with terrestrial satellite internet, which promises higher speed and now also has 2-way connection. I was recently considering moving to this secluded place where you cannot get DSL or cable.

The latency is not that bad. Of course you cant play online games, but radiostreaming works fine

However, for streaming the latency is (almost) completely irrelevant.

I have twice now been on the phone using Skype and my USB headset sitting 11km above the surface. And the quality have been close to a land line connection. Amazing.

01JUN-31AUG Internet connection during the whole flight (or during the time it actually works ) costs "only" 2500 EB points (half price).

http://www.scandinavian.net/EC/Appl/...253DSE,00.html

I have used SKPYE a lot and always had great conections, just feel you have to be careful when using it so as not to disturb fellow passengers

In June I wrote SK customer relations a nice mail via their website how disappointed I was that the internet was not working on the ARN-ORD I took in June. First I got a auto reply after 14 days and today I received a letter in the mail where they apologised for the delay and the non working service. To compensate me for the disappointment they enclosed a 100EUR DBC voucher for use on SK flight valid for one year.

Way to go! Thank you SAS! ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^