BobLinderman

This one is absolutely incredible. Imagine having a 14 hour flight across the pond and being able to maintain a high speed Internet connection on your laptop computer...while you are flying. Imagine being able to surf the net, have full email capabilities, ICQ/Instant Messenger, the RealPlayer to listen to your favorite team's play-by-play, download music on Napster, communicate and chat with the office via Internet telephony...most importantly, write your FT messages while you are taking the flight!

...And this is a high speed, high throughput connection! Boeing's new product Connexion is on it's way to AA for the trial...then hopefully, it will be made available on all flights.

Here is a link to the news release today:
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/2001...rnet_dc_1.html

jmail1

Let's start a contest to see who can get close to the per minute charge of high speed in flight internet access.

Do I hear $5 per minute, $10.........

I have a feeling it is going to be freaking outrageous.

I for one would pay around $25-50 for 14 hours worth though, especially in coach.

sdix

The system to be introduced on Cathay and Singapore is $10 per connection. So sign on when you get on and log off when you get off.

Their system only allows for batched E Mail. You can create then send but the plane only contacts the satelite every 15 minutes to upload and download. Pretty slick. Being that it's not online, the web browsing is limited to specific sites that are cahed on th eplane then refreshed every 15 minutes.

They are moving to a real time system but it's not ready for prime time yet.

PHL

I'll believe "high speed" when I see it. Their idea of high speed may, in reality, be something closer to 28.8K. Wireless LANs in the office are onething, but giving 300 seats internet access across wireless connections is far from fast.

Doppy

There was an article about this in the Wall Street Journal yesterday. It said that the service would likely cost about $15 per hour, in contrast to the several dollars per minute air phone.

It's supposed to be broadband access, with 5Mb/second receive and 1.5MB/s transmit. On a full 777 with everyone doing some bandwidth intensive work, that might get slow, but for Web browsing and some streaming media, that's plenty fast, considering that not everyone is going to use it.

And, it looks like it's going to be via an ethernet connection, not wireless. So, each seat should theoretically have an Ethernet jack. Just like they all have power ports, right?

d

BobLinderman

We use satellite Internet connections in our office here in Ohio. Our downloads are quite fast (well over 500 kbps and as high as 1.4 Mbps) and it allows over 250 simultaneous users. Since web page downloads are fast and most people spend more time reading their screens and are not downloading (unless everyone on the plane is downloading music from Napster or something...eek!), the connections should be pretty fast. Also, consider that a lot of passengers will not bring notebooks on board because they do not own or travel with their notebooks...and, consider that most people are presently not using the power ports on the flights...many do not even know where the power ports are located. My conclusion is that it will take a lot of time for this to gain popularity...and there will be a lot of passengers who will not be able to justify the cost of the service, let alone have the equipment or the desire to use it at all. For those of us who want to use the service, it should work just fine...It will be nice to have an alternate diversion from the movie(s) or the in-flight entertainment. Personally, I am looking forward to this. Also, it will be interesting to read all of the in-flight critiques that will be developed from passengers who will be communicating with all of us on FlyerTalk.

DFWTripGuy

Wanted to post a link regarding this topic. Boeing was quoted by CNN-TV as saying it expects the service to cost about $20/hr.

More info here:

www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/internet

[This message has been edited by DFWTripGuy (edited 06-13-2001).]

[This message has been edited by DFWTripGuy (edited 06-13-2001).]

MileKing

I would certainly be willing to spend $5 - $10 per HOUR for this service. Above $10/hour, it seems a bit much, and at $15-$20 I don't think I would spend more than 1 hour on-line per flight.

BobLinderman

I wonder if the charge will be cumulative, meaning that you can sign on and off periodically and you will be charged by the minute for the usage. That might work better for people who want to download web sites and sign off to read them...also it would be great for email. This would keep the expense down.

hillrider

I have a feeling that they will practice monopolist's myopia: charge really, really, high, and never see the product being adopted as a must-have tool.

I've even read some comments somewhere where they state that the cost of installing and lugging around phones on planes is greater than the revenue share to the airline. At $6 for the first minute and $3 for each additional one (US -- it's $12 and $6 for extra-US), duh!

[This message has been edited by hillrider (edited 06-13-2001).]

hillrider

BTW, I'm willing to bet that they will rig any broadband connection such that you won't be able to do voice over IP.

Now if only airlines listened to their customers as opposed to their self-interested vendors...

sdix

Hillrider,

Because it's a satelite connection, VOIP or Napster or IM type applications will not run smoothly. You may see between 500K and 1.5 meg download but the satelite delay will kill VOIP.

Yes it's also a shared connection and somewhat time of day (traffic) dependent. It's shared not only by all those on the same plane but all those transponding with the satelite. My experience shows then download will be closer to 500K and upload might be 28.8 speeds.

A cached solution actually would be more pleasing to the user than actually being on line libe.