4 ms·
JetBlue scores FAA approval for Fly-Fi, may launch satellite WiFi next month
- drpgq 13y agoI'm surprised that getting internet widely on planes has taken as long as it has. Air Canada still has nothing.
- joeblau 13y agoIt may not be worth the investment yet. Most people can go a few hours without internet, but that is quickly changing. Usually if I'm on the plane, I prepare myself with offline documentation and code to write or movies.
- colmvp 13y agoOn the flipside, a lot of Air Canada planes have free individual media entertainment systems and power outlets while most of the American flights I've taken don't have outlets or entertainment that doesn't require a credit card.
- eksith 13y agoSouthwest has internet that costs, I think $8-9, per day per device for internet, but TV is free. They also have on-demand, but that costs extra too. No outlets yet, though. Edit: I should mention, it's been a while.
- colmvp 13y agoGiven the choice, I prefer outlets over internet on flights, largely because I can always code or play computer games on a laptop without the internet and not worry about my computer shutting down.
- bpicolo 13y agoDelta has different things on different flights almost entirely at random. I think they have internet on basically every flight ($8, huge scam IMO but that's where internet for planes is right now), free TV on like...20-30% of flights maybe? I think I saw outlets once.
- mikeash 13y agoFunny, my surprise is in the opposite direction. Aviation moves at a glacial pace, and the speed with which in-flight internet access has been popping up is pretty shocking. Within the past couple of years, my experience has been that it's much more likely to have internet access on a US domestic flight than not.
- cbhl 13y agoAfter flying Air Canada and Virgin Airlines, I think I'll take Cup Noodles at 30 000 ft over having Wi-Fi at 8 000 ft.
- arjn 13y agoSomeone should look into providing head mounted display (think Oculus Rift) devices for passengers on Aircraft - for a fee of course. I'd love to play a flight sim while flying :P
- jcampbell1 13y agoAfter clicking a few articles deep, it appears this is communicating with a geo-synchronous satellite and with latency of roughly 750ms. Plenty of bandwidth, and it should in theory work in North and South America.
- Killah911 13y agoFiguring out how to deal with the 750ms ping latency was a pain at first. Held our breath when the ViaSat Satellite launched. The rockets that were launched right before that mission didn't meet with much success.
- guan 13y agoRemember those magic years in 2005 and 2006 with Connexion by Boeing, when we had Wi-Fi on several airlines over the Atlantic and from Europe to Asia?
- joe_the_user 13y agoHmm, Would it be that hard to ramp this up and start a service on the ground? It would be nice see more competition for the duopolies.
- gvb 13y agoViaSat Exede is the underlying magic http://www.engadget.com/2012/04/03/viasat-exede-review/ http://www.engadget.com/2012/04/03/viasat-exede-review/
- timmaah 13y agoNot portable though. I live and work on the road from an Airstream using mobile connection. An easy to configure portable satellite setup is my dream. There are a few out there but at crazy prices.
- toomuchtodo 13y agohttp://www.datastormusers.com http://www.datastormusers.com A gentleman camped ~100 feet from me at Burning Man last week was using it; said it worked like a champ. He's on a mobile platform as well.
- Killah911 13y agoCool to see this on HN. I was a software architect on the project and helped design a good chunk of the system :-)
- kemiller 13y agoWhat impact does the "radome" have on aerodynamics and fuel efficiency?
- gms 13y agoCan somebody explain if this would be any different to the internet offered by Virgin America?