JetBlue scores FAA approval for Fly-Fi, may launch satellite WiFi next month | Hacker News Reader

JetBlue scores FAA approval for Fly-Fi, may launch satellite WiFi next month

engadget.com

34 pointsarjn19 comments

Cool to see this on HN. I was a software architect on the project and helped design a good chunk of the system :-)

Remember 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?

After 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.

Figuring 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.

I'm surprised that getting internet widely on planes has taken as long as it has. Air Canada still has nothing.

On 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.

Southwest 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.

Given 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.

Delta 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.

It 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.

Funny, 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.

After 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.

Hmm,

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.

ViaSat Exede is the underlying magic http://www.engadget.com/2012/04/03/viasat-exede-review/

Not 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.

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.

What impact does the "radome" have on aerodynamics and fuel efficiency?

Someone 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

Can somebody explain if this would be any different to the internet offered by Virgin America?

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