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How Inflight Wifi Works

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Re: How Inflight Wifi Works

#71

Post by objclxt »

wrenky wrote: post #25
degenerate wrote: post #6

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?

I work for ViaSat (the satellite provider for FlyFi)! You'll never have latency fast enough for "gaming" speeds, as your signal has to travel halfway to the moon and back meaning a physical limit of at least 500ms. Not good enough for gaming, but streaming/torrents/large downloads work great.

Most US domestic airlines don't use satellite links, since they're always above ground. They tend to use ground based microwave technology instead, which offers better latency.

Source: I used to do some consultancy for a provider of in-flight entertainment / wifi systems.

Re: How Inflight Wifi Works

#72

Post by scholia »

thescriptkiddie wrote: post #55
rconti wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I typically find I can get ~6 hours on most modern laptops, which means far more hours than I have the patience to stare at a computer screen for.

Last time I flew internationally, I brought a 2015 macbook pro retina with a hard drive full of videos. I only ended up getting 4 of the advertised 9 hours run time running VLC with the brightness turned all the way down. Luckily, there were power outlets hidden under the seats. I don't understand why power outlets aren't the number 1 selling point for airlines that have them.

In the days when I traveled a lot, I used IBM ThinkPad X laptops with expanded (9-cell) interchangeable batteries. You just take a spare charged battery and swap them over.

I once did London -> Chicago -> Seattle and still had about an hour of battery life for the bus from seatac. That wasn't continuous use, but as much use as I needed.

Re: How Inflight Wifi Works

#73

Post by mikeash »

dheera wrote: post #57

"Prior to the integration of in-flight Wi-Fi, most airline passengers passed their time at 30,000 feet completely disconnected from the world below them — but these days, that’s a highly uncommon occurrence." Am I missing something here? 99% of the flights I take don't offer Wi-Fi, and in most cases not even power outlets. And those that do have Wi-Fi seem to be charging 30% of my monthly internet bill to provide it…

I think you're an unusual case. There are a ton of flights with WiFi these days.

I don't get the complaints about cost, either. They're connecting you to the world from six miles in the air. It's a pretty impressive technical feat, and $10 is a pretty reasonable cost for that. When you really need it, it's very cheap, considering. When you don't really need it, well, your cat GIFs can wait until you land.

Re: How Inflight Wifi Works

#74

Post by voltagex_ »

colmvp wrote: post #40

Of all the things I want on a plane, WiFi ranks a lot lower than having a consistent power outlet at my seat. There's nothing worse than having Wifi but a laptop that can only last a % of the flight.

I found out the hard way that on the new Qantas A380s, the power outlets are only in "premium" economy.

It's $939 from SYD to LAX in December (holy crap, at that price I better take a trip!) in Economy, but a whopping $2539 or $3389 for Premium Economy. I like having an AC outlet too, but that's crazy.

If you do get to use the outlets on the A380, be aware that they do ~75W maximum. Exceed that and they'll shut down, and they don't get reset.

Re: How Inflight Wifi Works

#75

Post by nfriedly »

Funny story: some in-flight WiFi services give you a different price based on your user-agent (high for phones, higher for tablets, highest for desktop browers). Fortunately no one can change that...

Re: How Inflight Wifi Works

#76

Post by ghaff »

scholia wrote: post #68
ghaff wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Closer to 12 hours. Read, watch videos that I've downloaded (unless there are on-demand movies), listen to music/podcasts, play games on my tablet, snooze. Maybe it's just a function of traveling a lot but I've pretty much got a system down for my in-flight entertainment. I don't really care that much about in-flight Wi-Fi. Sometimes I really need to work on something but generally I find it's hard to use a laptop on…

A 10-12 hour flight (or two) is a great chance to do something that wouldn't fit easily into a normal day. You could read Moby-Dick while listening to the Messiah, or something. Bach Cantantas are good, if you like that sort of thing, because there's a couple of hundred of them. I tend to pack a readable novel (Gaiman, Stephenson, Pratchett or whatever), and it's amazing how fast the time goes. Start reading when you…

(Sadly) longish flights are one of the few times I spend a lot of time reading books these days. Though this ends up meaning that I have lots of dead-tree books laying around home unread because I tend to just take a Kindle traveling.

I like your idea about long-form music too. I have lots of classical playlists but I mostly use them as background.

Re: How Inflight Wifi Works

#77

Post by rco8786 »

serf wrote: post #61
dheera wrote: post #57

"Prior to the integration of in-flight Wi-Fi, most airline passengers passed their time at 30,000 feet completely disconnected from the world below them — but these days, that’s a highly uncommon occurrence." Am I missing something here? 99% of the flights I take don't offer Wi-Fi, and in most cases not even power outlets. And those that do have Wi-Fi seem to be charging 30% of my monthly internet bill to provide it…

You're one of the lucky ones. Almost all my flights have power outlets, which means that some stranger is going to be rooting around my ankles trying to find the damn outlet for the first 20 minutes of the voyage.

Dang, for every new convenience technology affords us there's someone to complain about it.

Re: How Inflight Wifi Works

#78

Post by rco8786 »

untog wrote: post #44
colmvp wrote: post #40

Of all the things I want on a plane, WiFi ranks a lot lower than having a consistent power outlet at my seat. There's nothing worse than having Wifi but a laptop that can only last a % of the flight.

I'd love to see an airline get rid of seat back TVs entirely and just provide power outlets instead. There are already systems that let you stream movies for free over in-flight wi-fi - given that most of us have a smartphone (if not a bigger screened device) the experience would probably be better. Would suck for those without smartphones, though. Maybe they could lend out crappy Android tablets to that minority of…

A lot(most? All?) of airlines are moving to this exact model.

Re: How Inflight Wifi Works

#79

Post by idlewords »

rco8786 wrote: post #77
serf wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're one of the lucky ones. Almost all my flights have power outlets, which means that some stranger is going to be rooting around my ankles trying to find the damn outlet for the first 20 minutes of the voyage.

Dang, for every new convenience technology affords us there's someone to complain about it.

Because it usually comes with an inconvenience of equal or greater value.

Re: How Inflight Wifi Works

#80

Post by idlewords »

voltagex_ wrote: post #74
colmvp wrote: post #40

Of all the things I want on a plane, WiFi ranks a lot lower than having a consistent power outlet at my seat. There's nothing worse than having Wifi but a laptop that can only last a % of the flight.

I found out the hard way that on the new Qantas A380s, the power outlets are only in "premium" economy. It's $939 from SYD to LAX in December (holy crap, at that price I better take a trip!) in Economy, but a whopping $2539 or $3389 for Premium Economy. I like having an AC outlet too, but that's crazy. If you do get to use the outlets on the A380, be aware that they do ~75W maximum. Exceed that and they'll shut down,…

Veering off-topic, if you fly Air New Zealand on that route, you can often use their name-your-own-price auction system to get an upgrade to premium economy for a few hundred dollars.

I'm picturing you on that A380 cursing as you try to blow-dry your hair. What were you doing that pulled more than 75W?

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