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Southwest Airlines Offering In-Flight iMessaging for $2 Per Day

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Re: Southwest Airlines Offering In-Flight iMessaging for $2 Per Day

#31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Missing an /s tag? Perhaps they, or your home ISP should charge access to hacker news?

They're not "charging" you to use different services. They're taking their $8/day WiFi access charge, and reducing it by 75% if all you need it for is to send iMessages. What you just said makes it seem like you think Southwest is charging people $2 on top of their $8 fee to use WiFi, which they are most certainly not doing.

Easy: Make sure "economy" internet includes enough to cover most people's needs, most of the time. Price and market "full-service" internet like a luxury so most users will select the "economy" plan.

Sell inclusion in the economy plan's whitelist for a private, negotiable fee (measured in millions). Sell exclusivity per category (not outright, but by offering reasonable fees to only the highest bidder). Big players don't have to worry about competition, so their R&D costs are lower and their stocks are safer (and more attractive) investments. ISPs win, large internet companies win, small-government and pro-business voters win, the market wins. Large companies which are in themselves platforms (Google, Amazon, Apple) become the only option to reach consumers, so they can take as large of a percentage as they want. Consumers lose.

This is precisely the nightmare scenario motivating internet neutrality protections.

Re: Southwest Airlines Offering In-Flight iMessaging for $2 Per Day

#32
post #29

Free god damn wifi, its fucking 2013 and tickets cost like $300!!

I believe there is some technical merit here. Bandwidth to an airplane is limited and charging a small fee keeps it from being inundated.

When it's free -- like when Google sponsors it at Christmas -- it's not usable it's so slow.

Re: Southwest Airlines Offering In-Flight iMessaging for $2 Per Day

#33
post #24
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not poor, it just doesn't work. The recent talk about allowing in-flight cell phone use was in relation to the airlines installing an in-plane microcell of some sort for your phone to connect though.

Except for the calls that made it through from United 93, or was it at lower altitude at the time?

Certainly it was below the 30k' cruising altitude. And over a heavily populated area. And voice connections are easier to get than data in my experience doing, uhh, "research" of this sort.

Re: Southwest Airlines Offering In-Flight iMessaging for $2 Per Day

#34
post #7

Perhaps I am missing something as I have not been following the issue very closely. Didn't the FAA recently announce that use of mobile devices during flight, or gate-to-gate, is now allowed? What is the incentive to pay $2 to send iMessages vs. simply turning on your data connection & sending iMessage as you would regularly? Is the issue that Southwest Airlines has not opted into the new FAA regulations? Is cellular…

It's not poor, it just doesn't work. The recent talk about allowing in-flight cell phone use was in relation to the airlines installing an in-plane microcell of some sort for your phone to connect though.

Some flights on foreign airlines allow cell phone(assume through microcells). Just not on US domestic flights.

Re: Southwest Airlines Offering In-Flight iMessaging for $2 Per Day

#35
post #20
post #16

I thought most airlines had free wi-fi nowadays.

Free Wifi is usually a benefit of being a frequent flyer. For Southwest, you need to be an A-List Preferred member (50 flights per year to qualify).

In the US maybe. In the rest of the world it's usually free.
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