In-Flight WiFi

[ol' boy]

Found this amazing... although not altogether new.
Had a friend fly to Europe Tuesday, he flew Etihad from Melbourne to Abu Dhabi. Then on to Amsterdam.
He had WiFi available for the whole flight. Cost, $10 paid inflight when he took off at Melbourne.
As it worked while he was flying over the ocean, i suspect it works via a tracking dish to internet satellites.

He did not do any speed tests that i was aware of, but i was able to talk to him via Viber and also text via Viber.

Pretty impressive i thought.

[deanfourie]

That is pretty impressive. Id love to know what technology and what slektrum this is using. Also speed tests would have been interesting.

I wounder if this service would be available on long distance flights over the atlantic ocean.

[mandc]

But...but...they tell us the plane will fall out of the sky unless we turn off all our phones and computers with wi-fi as it interferes with navigation.....sounds a lot like the mobile phone signs they used to have at petrol stations...B.S.

Pretty amazing technology though. It would have to be some sort of satellite tracking antenna in the roof of the plane

"The alternative approach is for each plane to connect via . Some use legacy L-band technology, now slow and relatively expensive. And that's why higher-frequency Ku-band (12-18GHz) satellites are the mainstream, relatively economical and delivering good performance. Lufthansa's FlyNet system, for instance, claims download speeds to the aircraft of up to 50Mbps, which isn't bad at all for the middle of the ocean."

[ol' boy]

OUCH!!!!!! $1200 for In Flight WiFi.....

[LeroyPatrol]

I flew Emirates the other week and they had it also.

Leroy

[shred]

i was able to talk to him via Viber...

Ghhaaaa! NO! Just NO!

Mobile phone calls on an aircraft. That would be my idea of hell. Have you ever taken a long distance bus ride with some f...wit yabbering away at the top of her voice in a foreign language right next to your ear? I think "Air Rage" will become more prevalent. Maybe in future, I'll need to take a WiFi jammer of some form so I don't suffer some sort of melt down on long haul flights?

[Xplorer]

I'm about to fly Virgin and downloaded their In-Flight Entertainment app.

I can actually view everything they have to offer via their in-flight entertainment through normal internet.
Unfortunately, you can't view the content itself, just what they have currently on offer.

Was quite looking forward to viewing their new release movies at home, but I suppose it allows you to select certain entertainment as your favourite, all ready for when on the plane.

[Swirlboy]

I work in the maritime environment, I have no idea what tech they are using on aircraft but I could only guess that it's similar to what we use, Sat tracking systems, input your lat and long, freq, heading at time of entering parameters and away it goes. Uses a gyro to stabilise itself, as for the carrier and satellites they use, thats pretty damn cheap, our data rates are a fair bit higher than that(in the thousands of $).

[gordon_s1942]

The only big difference I can see between the marine and aviation applications would be the claim that using such devises would interfere with the aircraft's controls and it could crash unlike interfering with a boats controls wouldnt make it sink.
Another factor would be the weight of the equipment which is another cost in fuel used to carry it and all Carriers dont want any more weight than needed.

As we found out recently with the loss of MH370, the Rolls Royce engines were sending data every 30 minutes while in flight to a Satellite so it makes you wonder what other devises are either Transmitting or Receiving or both from Satellites while the aircraft is in flight.

Its becoming more obvious that properly installed equipment has no effect on the safety of the aircraft unlike the previous claims.