Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How Inflight Wifi Works

thepointsguy.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

1–10 of 129 posts

Re: How Inflight Wifi Works

#3

Post by JoshGlazebrook »

Does anyone have details on the ground based cell networks used for some planes? Are they partnering with a provider like Verizon Wireless to use their existing service, which I don't believe is the case unless they are aiming their antennas into the air on certain towers for them. Or do they just lease space for their own antennas on towers and aim them upwards? and then pay for bandwidth, etc?

Re: How Inflight Wifi Works

#4

Post by pavel_lishin »

mindslight wrote: post #2

What's with the insistence on demand for streaming music or video on a plane? Do these people also forgo packing a suitcase and just rebuy everything as needed?

Are you saying that they should pre-download movies and music to listen to on the plane?

I use Google Play for music because it's pretty okay at letting me cache local music on my phone, but I have no idea how well Rdio, Spotify, or Pandora do that. I don't think there's a way to do it on your computer at all, so if you only have a work phone that you don't keep music on, streaming music might be your only option if you don't want to listen to one of the 13 channels provided via the crappy in-seat audio jack.

Re: How Inflight Wifi Works

#5

Post by ape4 »

mindslight wrote: post #2

What's with the insistence on demand for streaming music or video on a plane? Do these people also forgo packing a suitcase and just rebuy everything as needed?

When you buy your ticket (online of course) you could also select a movie to download. It could be available on the plane's LAN for you.

Re: How Inflight Wifi Works

#6

Post by degenerate »

Jet Blue just rolled out free wifi to most of their US-based flights... and while it was pretty slow, I could still RDP into my work computer to answer emails and read HN. That was pretty sweet. You can pay $10 to get "gaming" speeds but I didn't test it out. I'd imagine most pings being >200ms. Has anyone tried it out?

Re: How Inflight Wifi Works

#7

Post by devy »

This paragraph is absurd. Not sure if the author was excessively exaggerating or this is true. Can someone who's a domain expert or is familiar with the device to clarify why in-flight WAPs are 10x more expensive but 10x more fragile? Cosmic rays?

		Called Wireless Access Points (or WAPs), these black boxes
	function similarly to Wi-Fi routers that would be found in a
	home, but because they’re on an airplane, they cost 10 times more
	and break 10 times more easily. Each WAP is connected by a
	QuadRax cable, which is essentially formed of wires within wires
	within wires.

Re: How Inflight Wifi Works

#8

Post by kingosticks »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #4
mindslight wrote: post #2

What's with the insistence on demand for streaming music or video on a plane? Do these people also forgo packing a suitcase and just rebuy everything as needed?

Are you saying that they should pre-download movies and music to listen to on the plane? I use Google Play for music because it's pretty okay at letting me cache local music on my phone, but I have no idea how well Rdio, Spotify, or Pandora do that. I don't think there's a way to do it on your computer at all, so if you only have a work phone that you don't keep music on, streaming music might be your only option if…

The Spotify android app supports offline playback. I've not used the desktop client in long time buy it probably still does too.

I've never been on a plane that offered wifi but I've never flown internally in the US. I quite enjoy being properly disconnected for the duration of my annual London to San Francisco flight but maybe if I did it more regularly I wouldn't.

Re: How Inflight Wifi Works

#9

Post by pavel_lishin »

devy wrote: post #7

This paragraph is absurd. Not sure if the author was excessively exaggerating or this is true. Can someone who's a domain expert or is familiar with the device to clarify why in-flight WAPs are 10x more expensive but 10x more fragile? Cosmic rays? Called Wireless Access Points (or WAPs), these black boxes function similarly to Wi-Fi routers that would be found in a home, but because they’re on an airplane, they cost…

Sounds like it's more of a joke, but I bet it feels like they break down more often - it's probably not trivial to just powercycle it mid-flight like you would your router at home.

Re: How Inflight Wifi Works

#10

Post by pavel_lishin »

kingosticks wrote: post #8
pavel_lishin wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you saying that they should pre-download movies and music to listen to on the plane? I use Google Play for music because it's pretty okay at letting me cache local music on my phone, but I have no idea how well Rdio, Spotify, or Pandora do that. I don't think there's a way to do it on your computer at all, so if you only have a work phone that you don't keep music on, streaming music might be your only option if…

The Spotify android app supports offline playback. I've not used the desktop client in long time buy it probably still does too. I've never been on a plane that offered wifi but I've never flown internally in the US. I quite enjoy being properly disconnected for the duration of my annual London to San Francisco flight but maybe if I did it more regularly I wouldn't.

What do you do while you're disconnected? (Other than sleep, I assume that the London->San Francisco flight is probably over eight hours.
Post reply on HN