[telecom] F.C.C. Advances Plan for Faster In-Flight Wi-Fi

[Monty Solomon]

F.C.C. Advances Plan for Faster In-Flight Wi-Fi

By EDWARD WYATT
May 9, 2013

WASHINGTON - It may soon be easier and faster to surf the Web at 30,000 feet.

The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday proposed auctioning
off the rights to use newly available airwaves to provide better
in-flight Wi-Fi connections, as the government agency seeks to
improve the speed and lower the cost of Internet service on
commercial flights.

The commission's proposal is the first step toward a goal that it is
likely to take a couple of years, at least, to reach: providing
in-flight Internet service that can match or exceed the capabilities
that most Americans have at home or can find in coffee shops.

The new format would use a more reliable system of contact between a
plane and the ground, agency officials said, and should allow
providers to offer more consistent service that is some 30 times
faster than the service that many Americans have in their homes.

Although it will be at least a couple of years before the new service
is available, federal officials and people in the broadband business
expressed excitement that the new format could free airline
passengers from being captive to the expensive and rather slow Wi-Fi
that is currently available on only some domestic flights.

..

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/10/business/fcc-advances-plan-for-faster-in-flight-wi-fi.html

***** Moderator's Note *****

Has anybody noticed that the in-flight movies and other gewgaws
airlines tried to stuff down the passengers' throats have vanished as
quickly as they appeared?

In-flight WiFi, IMNSHO, is another instance of a solution in search of
a problem. Business executives who /might/ have need of instant
connectivity are riding in first class and don't care what it costs,
and the plebians in the back don't want to "surf the web" at 30,000
feet, or any other altitude.

I'm not sure what drives this kind of "feature". The pilots don't want
it, the flight attendants don't want it, the flying public could care less,
and I wish someone would enlighten me, since I don't want it and I'm
much more an Internaut than most travellers.

Pilots, who are cursed with a navigation system designed before
television, are worried about yet-another-source-of-interference.

Flight attendants, who deal with heavy bags and expensive cameras and
other trinkets falling out of overhead bins, are loathe to encourage
passengers to bring expensive and delicate laptops into the aircraft,
adding yet-another-headache of lost, damaged, stolen, or misplaced
electronics to their already burdemsome duties.

I don't want it, and I don't think I'm unusual. Business travelers,
still the majority of moneymaking clients for cash-strapped airlines,
are loathe to give up the few seconds of disconnected bliss that they
now enjoy - the "unplugged" concert of white noise that many road
warriors prize as the only time in their day when they are required by
FAA rules to enjoy a little peace and quiet.

Bill Horne
Moderator

[Garrett Wollman]

In article <p06240803cdb23a0bcb08@[10.0.1.2]>, Bill Horne wrote:

>Has anybody noticed that the in-flight movies and other gewgaws
>airlines tried to stuff down the passengers' throats have vanished as
>quickly as they appeared?

No, I haven't, actually. There have been in-flight movies on
long-distance flights for at least 25 years to my personal knowledge,
and I haven't heard anything about getting rid of them. Nor do I
recall them ever being "stuff[ed] down passengers' throats". What
airline do [you] fly on, Bill?

>In-flight WiFi, IMNSHO, is another instance of a solution in search of
>a problem. Business executives who /might/ have need of instant
>connectivity are riding in first class and don't care what it costs,
>and the plebians in the back don't want to "surf the web" at 30,000
>feet, or any other altitude.

I'm not sure what [airline you fly on], but it doesn't remotely match my
experience of air travel.

>Pilots, who are cursed with a navigation system designed before
>television, are worried about yet-another-source-of-interference.

No commercial aircraft uses nondirectional beacons any more. Most if
not all use GPS, which will soon be a requirement, in addition to
their inertial navigation system and VORTAC/DME receivers.

>Flight attendants, who deal with heavy bags and expensive cameras and
>other trinkets falling out of overhead bins, are loathe to encourage
>passengers to bring expensive and delicate laptops into the aircraft,
>adding yet-another-headache of lost, damaged, stolen, or misplaced
>electronics to their already burdemsome duties.

Have you *ever* flown, Bill? Nobody, and I mean *nobody*, entrusts
"expensive and delicate laptops" to baggage handlers. Most business
travelers don't check any baggage at all if they can help it. That's
why the TSA people are always shouting in the screening lines for
people to take their laptops out of their bags to run through the
X-ray machines. It would be a shock if at least one person sitting
near [me] didn't take out a laptop -- all too often it's the person
sitting in front of me.

-GAWollman
--
Garrett A. Wollman | What intellectual phenomenon can be older, or more oft
wol...@bimajority.org| repeated, than the story of a large research program
Opinions not shared by| that impaled itself upon a false central assumption
my employers. | accepted by all practitioners? - S.J. Gould, 1993

[Barry Margolin]

In article <p06240803cdb23a0bcb08@[10.0.1.2]>,

Telecom Digest Moderator wrote:

> Flight attendants, who deal with heavy bags and expensive cameras and
> other trinkets falling out of overhead bins, are loathe to encourage
> passengers to bring expensive and delicate laptops into the aircraft,
> adding yet-another-headache of lost, damaged, stolen, or misplaced
> electronics to their already burdemsome duties.

Most of the uses will probably be with tablets and smartphones, not
laptops.

And it's not just for business people -- what about all the young people
who can't stand to be disconnected from Facebook, Twitter, etc. for 5
minutes?

--
Barry Margolin, bar...@alum.mit.edu
Arlington, MA
*** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me ***