Getting online on flights will be a reality soon
The Internet will be available pretty much everywhere soon – even few thousand kilometers above the ground. Starting next week and over the next few months, several American airlines will test Internet service on their planes. On Tuesday, JetBlue Airways will begin offering a free e-mail and instant messaging service on one aircraft, while American Airlines, Virgin America and Alaska Airlines plan to offer a broader Web experience in the coming months, probably priced at about $10 a flight. The airlines’ goal is to turn their planes into the equivalent of a wireless hot spot once the aircraft reaches its cruising altitude. It will not be available on takeoff and landing. Virgin America even plans to link the technology to its seat-back entertainment system, enabling passengers who are not traveling with laptops or smartphones to send messages on a flight.
The network can also potentially be used for communications within the plane, like food and drink orders — something Virgin America already does with its seat-back system.While the technology could allow travelers to make phone calls over the Internet, most carriers say they have no plans to allow voice communications. Many travelers find the prospect of phone calls much less palatable than having a seatmate quietly browsing e-mail. While companies have been promising airborne Internet service for years — the aircraft manufacturer Boeing offered a system that was adopted by a few international carriers but is now defunct — JetBlue will be the first carrier in the United States to offer access to the Web, at least in a limited way. But if a test flight on Wednesday is any indication of the challenges airlines and their technology partners face in trying to offer Internet connections at 35,000 feet and 500 miles an hour, travelers can initially expect an experience reminiscent of the days of dial-up access — slower and more prone to glitches than on the ground. We have to start somewhere and this is definitely a good direction. I offer half the kingdom and beautiful princess to first visitor who will send me a picture of him browsing RLSLOG.net online on the plane. 
Source: NY Times
Comments(26)
First… hmm looks interesting
I’m gonna win that princess.
Pic of princess please.
lol: a few thousand kilometers above ground… before an airplane with this altitude is invented (like never, it would fly higher than iss or such stuff) i guess the dudes in space shuttle will brows rlslog, killing some time while asking if their spaceshuttle is cooler than halo 3 or better as than axxos shuttle… rofl
I’ll be on an AA flight this friday….i might win!!!
@5: hahahahahahahahaha
This post is useless with out pictures of the so called “princess”
i might get the winner some unknown pr0n of briana banks, i think she would match “the princess” fairly well
A kingdom for a plane…
But I’m keeping th princess
Considdering all the calls we heard from recordings on 9/11 from mobile phones (”even few thousand kilometers above the ground”) I kinda asumed what with the perfect signals already available over the phone network, broadband access would be as simple as just switching on your laptop and conecting.
Weird that.
@11 noob.
Cool now I can play flightsim 2008 in the air now
- buy a life
- get on reality
- this will not avoid crashes ;D
“this will not avoid crashes”
only if using microsoft
actually this is not the first time you could get internet on a plane. Lufthansa had broadband wireless internet at one point. i know this since ive tried it. it didnt really pick up. too bad it was ahead of its time.
Once again, the US blazes a computing path for the world to follow. You know you love us.
oh man id go for some of those briana banks pics:D
Hmm.. I can see hackers hacking in mid flight haha
LOL @ “even few thousand kilometers above the ground”!!
Priceless. So the web from SPACE, eh?
“few thousand kilometers above the ground” … i’d like to see those *air*planes
@16 STFU
Nice going now that the first half of the kingdom is going to the one who is posting the rlslog pic the other half can be your if u get us a ic of any bitorrent application running in full swing and u might get a chance to hit shay laren in return:)
sorry martin not everybody fancies briana banks
Any rapidshare links, please? rotfl
Yes, already in 2004 Lufthansa had internet access, for 30$ a flight. In my MUC-SFO flight I could chat with friends and surgf 14 hrs… it was nice…
what if i am flying in a glider, using my mobile phone to recieve the internet? does this count? because next time it doesnt rain, i am there!
Nice