msit

I read an article on a technology blog about the possibility of free inflight wifi as a First Class Perk@:-), and I was wondering what you guys thought. It seems like a great idea to me, but some experts in the article point out bandwidth concerns and such. Read it and let me know. What other potential problems could this have?
The first class wifi article

cordelli

I don't see it as having any problems. A few extra people won't make that much of a difference in the bandwidth used, most people won't be streaming huge files (which the system won't allow anyways), and the assumption that 100% of the people will use it simply because it's free is silly.

If people are flying first class, they are flying first class. I don't see anybody jumping all over it because the internet will be free for them.

I say go for it.

msit

Me, Mary Kirby of APEX mag, and a few of the boardingarea bloggers got into a very heated discussion on it, and Mary made some good points on the stress it will put on the system, and the decreased performance for paying customers. I still support it.

cordelli

I don't think there's any evidence to show another five or ten people will kill the system. It's designed to slow down people that are hogging the system, and the reality is for the program to continue, they need to get more people using it, so I'm sure their expansion plans are for another five or ten paid people per plane (actually probably way more than that)

mooper

GoGo uses multiple EvDO channels, which unlike cable and satellite, are dedicated - not shared. Concerns about bandwidth hogging are overblown, as channels can get used up but what people are doing on the channels doesn't matter. It's easy to get around the blocks for streaming video, VoIP, and other applications, and I often fly with multiple people all doing these things and we have no issues.

That said, I hope they don't offer it free for a different reason... I like the model the airlines are shifting to where those who use a service pay for it, rather than all passengers sharing the cost. It keeps ticket prices lower, and overall prices lower for those who don't want to use all of the optional services.

Also, from the airline's perspective, it's not likely to yield much customer satisfaction for what it costs to provide. This is because many people in first class are either well enough off that they don't blink at $10-$15 for WiFi, or are business travelers that don't foot the bill anyway.