I agree with your sentiment that everyone should have the choice. Where it does start to have impact on fellow pax is if they allow VOIP (Skype, facetime etc) and people start chatting loudly onboard ("look at me, i'm in a plane!") disturbing other passengers.

I'm looking forward to being able to have data inflight, but hope something can be done to stop VOIP type applications.

sxc :)

VOIP is a problem, sure. in F, it might be less noisy then the FAs chatting in the front kitchen during a night flight (sometimes earplus do not help enough). besides internet use, you have aeromobile on EK etc, and i am sure if someone behaves rude, the fellow passengers might let this person know that his/hers behavious is considered rude. experiencing inflight wifi since about 8 years now, i can say that chatting does the job better than a slow VOIP connection -- so I do not worry about that. when i use inflight phone on some airlines, and have to yell all the time, it is much worse. so i would only do that if there is a real emergency need.

the main problem with inflight wifi is that you need to be sure to have it or not. when LH introduced it 8 years ago, the problem sometimes was how to track the availibity beforehand. if you take a dayflight, like 12 hrs HKG-FRA, you want to be sure you have internet. i have actually been not taking a flight when they told me at the gate that wifi was not available that day.
only thing you can count on now is EK with all A380s having wi-fi -- for any other airline it is hit-or-miss. and if i cannot plan on being connected before the fligth, i will make sure i do not really need it.

What a rare blue moon. For once i agree with Mayodave. And i'm involved in the IT business.

I should have actually made it more clear about my feeling on wifi ona plane, what I really dont want to see is people being able to use thngs like Skype or any other VOIP, browsing yes. Having to listen to some moron telling people he is 35000 feet off the ground and asking "can you see me" is really not what I want to hear.

hmm I thought I read an inteview with Slosar saying skype would be banned.

They should just set up wifi and not the mobile network

Just got an insight survey on this matter and here's the description CX provides.

Besides the "description", what else were you suppose to choose / suggest?

I would mention something like tiered discount for MPO members
ie. 10% off for GR, 25% SL, 50% GO, complimentary for DM, etc..

VPN would get around any filtering, though, and even with access logs kept, my employer would not mind Skype...

It's not about what you do with your company's asset or expense.
It's about the the 50+ / 300+ unfortunate passengers that have to share the same cabin/flight with you...

No special measures are needed to stop VOIP and video chat. They don't work properly as it is owing to the high latency / low bandwidth connectivity you get on a moving aircraft.

Which might be worse because you might get a bad connection and you'll have people continually saying "Can you see me? Can you hear me?" and thinking that raising their voice will improve the latency :)

Was that your actual onboard experience or just your speculation? I've been on numerous wi-fi enabled flights and never had I heard any of these. Maybe I was just lucky to be surrounded by considerate passengers if that's what you have experienced before.

Just my speculation. Hopefully it is an unfounded fear.

I wonder if the PRC told him to say that :p

Still it is good to see what for once an HK company like CX are brushing mainland China out of the way and going down their own route to not only match what other competitors are doing, but to also provide the best for their pax. If the People's Republic of China feels that wifi connectivity on a plane is a bit too sensitive, just disable this service for PVG and PEK sectors...

unfortunately CX is kow-towing to PRC

wifi was supposed to come in 2012- CX said not possible due to PRC

EK etc can operate wifi perfectly over China and too China

Yet CX refuses to do so- it is basic CX incompetence

at this rate it looks like the horrid Air India will get wifi/mobile- I am dying imagining India passengers talking loudly on phones!!