DealsOnTheWeb Daily Deal: Overstock: Get 15% Cash Back when You Use PayPal + a Chance to win $5,000
Airlines Working on Offering In-Flight WiFi Service
by , 11:15 AM EDT, April 14th, 2008
Several airlines are working on bringing (almost) full-blown WiFi service to flights within the United States, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. We say "almost," because if and when such services are offered, they are not likely to include Skype or other Internet-based phone services, but they will otherwise be a full service offering for laptop and iPhone-toting passengers.
The services will, of course, be offered for a fee. Aircell, one of the companies looking to provide such service, is currently looking at the US$12.95 range for flights longer than 3 hours, less for shorter flights. Competing schemes include a network of cell towers, as well as satellite-based services, with access points in the front and rear of the plane.
According to official doctrine, phone services will not be offered in order to limit passengers' ability to annoy one another with their loud phone voices. No word yet on whether or not there will be accompanying technology intended to limit passengers' annoying normal talking voices, or the sounds of nearby crying and/or screaming children.
Speaking of throttling, bandwidth, too, will be throttled for those trying to grab too big a slice of the network's pipe in order to ensure a reasonably fast connection for everyone onboard. That means folks trying to stream a movie through iTunes might need longer buffering times. Bandwidth estimates from the different carriers currently lie between less than 3 Mbits per second to up to 30 Mbits per second.
Once these services begin to make an appearance, in-flight WiFi should quickly become the norm in the air transportation industry, according to Charles Ogilvie, Virgin America's director of in-flight entertainment and partnerships.
He told the Chronicle that, "Wi-Fi is going to be a vanilla amenity. Once you put a product or feature out there and it really starts to resonate with users, it becomes the standard and the bare minimum."
Airlines will be testing and/or rolling out these services ranging from this summer to next year, with Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Continental, JetBlue (already testing limited Yahoo e-mail, IM chat and BlackBerry e-mail service), Southwest Airlines, and Virgin America all with plans in the offing.
Observer Comments
The US airlines need to concentrate all their efforts on providing better flying experiences for passengers:
1. Be on Time
2. Don't lose luggage
3. More comfortable seats
4. Reinstate reasonable food service, even snacks, for flights over 3 hours.
5. Train your employees to work WITH passengers, not berate them.
When pigs fly, I mean when these things happen, the US airlines may regain lost ground on their international competitors. I'm amazed at what US passengers put up with from their airlines compared to flying overseas. It's like we want the abuse or something.
Recent Headlines - Updated Saturday, November 29th, 2008
- Sat., 9:00 PM
- Podcast - Apple Weekly Report #135: Apple Lawsuits, Banned iPhone Ad, Green MacBook Ad
- Fri., 12:45 PM
- Podcast - Mac Geek Gab #178: Batch Permission Changes, Encrypting Follow-up, Re-Enabling AirPort, and GigE speeds
- Thu., 1:30 PM
- iPO Review - Scosche kickBACK iPhone case
- 7:00 AM
- Happy Thanksgiving from TMO!
- Wed., 6:00 PM
- TMO Appearances - Nancy Gravley Joins MacJury Gift Guide
- 5:15 PM
- TMO Visits The Bay, a Premium Apple Reseller in New Zealand
- 3:25 PM
- iPO Oh the Games You'll Play - iPhone: The Wii of Handheld Gaming Devices?
- 2:15 PM
- Sonnet Releases Simply Fast FireWire 800 to 400 Adapter
- 1:10 PM
- Mac Gaming News - Disney Plans 1st Annual PotC Online Thanksgiving Event
- 12:05 PM
- iPodObserver - UK Shuts Down iPhone 3G Ad
- 11:15 AM
- TMO Appearances - Jeff Gamet on MacJury Gift Guide
- 10:30 AM
- TMO Contest - TMO Announces Macworld Expo Pass Winners
- 9:50 AM
- PhotoCopy 1.1 Adds iPhoto Event Support
- 9:15 AM
- Acclivity Buys MYOB US
- 8:30 AM
- Review - Bento 2 Holiday Pack
- 7:50 AM
- Microsoft Offers Black Friday Office Discount
- 7:30 AM
- iPO Quick Tip - iPhone: Google Street View
The Mac Observer Reader Specials
- Download Typestyler, still the Ultimate Styling Tool for Internet, Print and Video Graphics. Works great in Classic with a Native OS X Version on the way. Free Tryout: www.typestyler.com
New iMac 800Mhz Memory 4GB $54. New MacBook & MacBook Pro DDR3 PC8500 4GB Kit $116. MacBook/MacBook Pro / MacMini / iMac Intel Core2 DUO DDR2 667Mhz 4GB Kit $58, 3GB Kit $44, 2GB Kit $30. Click to Maximize your Macs...
Mac observers can now play Party Poker for Mac as well as Mac casino games by going to MacPokerOnline.com.
RamJet Memory: Mac Pro FB-DIMMs: 2Gig kit $95, 4Gig Kit $179, 8Gig Kit $355! MacBook 2Gig Kit $78, 4Gig Kit $149! Click hereFor the latest Apple products use Ciao a comparison website to find laptops like MacBook Air. Then find the best prices on MP3 players and use our comparison tool to evaluate cell phones.
Laptop Hardware Provided by TechRestore - Overnight Mac & iPod Repairs.

