AA and VX set to launch WiFi Internet on flights from July

dot · #1 (**permalink**) 24th June 2008, 11:37 AM

Well - to be more correct, AA will be adding the service on it's 767 fleet from New York (not sure if it is all airports ) to MIA, SFO and LAX. VX will be launching their service sometime after that. The service will be called Gogo (I wonder if they need to borrow an ad campaign from Oz? G..O..G..O, no, it's not the Dart, they always think it's the Dart....

) from a company called Aircell. This short video from the Wall Street Journal explains it well.

Dow Jones Single Title Player (No Content)

I have written TR entries mid flight, but never posted them - I guess the race will be on to be the first to post a TR from mid way between LAX and JKF!

mainly tailfirst · #2 (**permalink**) 24th June 2008, 03:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dot

I have written TR entries mid flight, but never posted them - I guess the race will be on to be the first to post a TR from mid way between LAX and JKF!

Love to try this one on, but can't see myself getting an opportunity until Sep when I fly to LAS. I may just take a VX flight from SFO if it is so equipped. Of course, the better-half will be less than impressed when told of the reason for me to take that flight instead of the WN one from SJC.

mt

thegurio · #3 (**permalink**) 24th June 2008, 10:31 PM

Wonder what they will charge? Will it be just the left nut or the whole reproduction system?

Secondly, would this mean that they will need to provide some sort of power points in the seats to power said laptops? Or are we going to have to all purchase Sony Vaio TX's or external power packs?

dot · #4 (**permalink**) 24th June 2008, 11:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thegurio

Wonder what they will charge? Will it be just the left nut or the whole reproduction system?

AA are going to charge US$12.95 for 3+ Hour flights and US$9.95 for less than 3 hour flights.

Quote:

Originally Posted by thegurio

Secondly, would this mean that they will need to provide some sort of power points in the seats to power said laptops? Or are we going to have to all purchase Sony Vaio TX's or external power packs?

Well, my T61P will get 4.5 hours, so I would get most of the flight without external power. Aside from that AA767s have seat power in all J and F seats and in select Y seats. VX already have seat power in every seat.

Mal · #5 (**permalink**) 24th June 2008, 11:14 PM

I can't wait to see 'live complaint' threads on Flyertalk. Something like:

"I'm currently in F on AA98 and the FA just handed out the nuts. There are no pecans, and it was cold. What compensation should I ask her for?"

Still, it is a good idea as long as VOIP is sufficiently neutered or blocked.

simongr · #6 (**permalink**) 25th June 2008, 06:48 AM

Wow six wholes posts before the phones on aircraft comments arrived...

I think this is great and pretty reasonable value. Just have to wonder if they will block torrent sites/ports - miss the latest ep of Lost whilst travelling - download it in flight and watch it

thegurio · #7 (**permalink**) 25th June 2008, 10:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by simongr

Wow six wholes posts before the phones on aircraft comments arrived...

i wasn't going to go there after last time!

Quote:

Originally Posted by simongr

I think this is great and pretty reasonable value. Just have to wonder if they will block torrent sites/ports - miss the latest ep of Lost whilst travelling - download it in flight and watch it

I would imagine that it would be speed limited, even if it was a megabit connection shared by a few people on the plane, and at $13 it would be a fair few, it would be slowed. What it the best speed you could get, i would imagine about 1.5 megabits but i have no idea what i base that on...

mainly tailfirst · #8 (**permalink**) 25th June 2008, 01:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thegurio

i wasn't going to go there after last time!

I would imagine that it would be speed limited, even if it was a megabit connection shared by a few people on the plane, and at $13 it would be a fair few, it would be slowed. What it the best speed you could get, i would imagine about 1.5 megabits but i have no idea what i base that on...

Well they have 3MHz of spectrum allocated for the link, so if they use a half decent modulation scheme, they should be able to around 2-3bit/Hz. Half that for usual losses due to FEC, noise, channel spacing etc. So 4-5Mbit a link would not be unreasonable. I assume they have separate up and down links, so I reckon performance would be on par with a regular ADSL connection shared amongst 30 or so people.
Latency would suck, so no playing CounterStrike at 35000ft unfortunately.

mt

dot · #9 (**permalink**) 25th June 2008, 02:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mainly tailfirst

Well they have 3MHz of spectrum allocated for the link, so if they use a half decent modulation scheme, they should be able to around 2-3bit/Hz. Half that for usual losses due to FEC, noise, channel spacing etc. So 4-5Mbit a link would not be unreasonable. I assume they have separate up and down links, so I reckon performance would be on par with a regular ADSL connection shared amongst 30 or so people.
Latency would suck, so no playing CounterStrike at 35000ft unfortunately.

mt

After quite a bit of searching, the only reference on either the Aircell (targeted at Airlines) or the Gogo (targeted at pax) sites that mentions speed is the following short quote from the Gogo site:

Quote:

Gogo’s speed in the air is similar to DSL speed on the ground, with speeds of 128 Kbps or better.

It does not say if that is per user or shared - hopefully per user.

I agree that latency will be relatively high, but I wouldnt expect it to be much worse than a current 3G (UMTS) connection as the link from the aircraft is directly to the ground rather than via a satellite like Connexions by Boeing was. Hopefully, the Aircell groundstations and network connections have been well designed to minimise latency for pax.

mainly tailfirst · #10 (**permalink**) 25th June 2008, 03:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dot

It does not say if that is per user or shared - hopefully per user.

I agree that latency will be relatively high, but I wouldnt expect it to be much worse than a current 3G (UMTS) connection as the link from the aircraft is directly to the ground rather than via a satellite like Connexions by Boeing was. Hopefully, the Aircell groundstations and network connections have been well designed to minimise latency for pax.

I suspect the 128kbit/s is per user. From AirCell:
Aircell - Aircell to Demonstrate Broadband Air-to-Ground Network and Wireless Cabin in Flight

"The link will utilize a limited number of ground cellular sites temporarily outfitted with special antennas and electronics under Aircell's experimental license from the FCC. The technology employed will provide a "to-the-seat" user experience that averages 300 to 500 kbps, with peak speeds of 3.1 Mbps"

Interestingly, they are using the same spectrum that was used for the old Airfone. The modulation is also 'UMTS like' as it uses modified EV-DO chips from Qualcomm.
U.S. In-flight Broadband Is A-gogo by Spring - GigaOM

All-in-all, not a bad bit of engineering. Now let's see if they can make money from it.

mt