Boeing Scraps In-flight Internet Access

Dreamwalkerofyore writes "According to the BBC, Boeing has recently announced that it has abandoned Connexion, its in-flight broadband service. Said Boeing CEO Jim McNerney: 'Regrettably, the market for this service has not materialized as had been expected. We believe this decision best balances the long-term interests of all parties with a stake in Connexion by Boeing.'"

Not a problem...

Seeing as we won't be able to take our laptops or other gadgets on board aircraft for much longer.

Re:Not a problem...

Look on the bright side - laptops & gadgets are pretty ineffective against snakes anyway (unless you open the laptop flat & use it as a bite shield, I suppose). A pillow or blanket would make a more agile of an implement, IMO.

Well DUH

If you can't bring your laptop on the flight, what did they expect!!? Psy Internet?.... Good going guys!! There is also no market for golf lessons on the flight either.

Re:Well DUH

The restrictions on flights have been lifted, and have for days. Laptops along with everything else are perfectly fine.

The only restriction is on drinks and liquids not purchased within the terminal.

Re:Well DUH

does that include dell laptops?

Re:Well DUH

Just bring some liquid fuel cell fuel...

Oh, wait..

where's the market

As evidenced by Sept. 11's Flight 93, cell phones work perfectly well at high altitudes. So as the broadband capability of these phones increases, it's obvious that dedicated services such as Connexion are targeting a redundant market.

Re:where's the market

Cellphones don't work when you're over the middle of an ocean. Satellites, on the other hand, can. Plus, I suspect it's easier to use a satellite connection for live TV, than to try and and pipe it over a cellphone network.

Besides, if you're flying over multiple countries, you need to get on several different cellphone networks, which means having to sign contracts with multiple providers if you wanna connect the entire plane, or having to worry about huge roaming charges. Not to mention cellphones don't work everywhere over land either, and in some regions, networks might be incapable of handling anything besides voice traffic.

Connexion probably didn't take off (pun intended) because of the costs invovled. You could pay for a landline connection for a month with what you had to pay for an entire flight of Internet access

Re:where's the market

...cell phones work perfectly well at high altitudes..

They do. It is a common misconception that the authorities want cell phones off in flight because of safety. The reason is simple, because the plane is travelling so fast, and the ground system is more or less designed for automobile speeds, the cell system hands off to the next cell very rapidly causing grief for the cell system owners.

It likely will not work when over an unpopulated area, but near cities and main hiways it should. This isn't to say the connection will be stable, it likely will not be. 9/11 worked because they were in a populated area flying relatively low.

Re:where's the market

False. Cell phones DO work at high altitudes. High altitudes gives them good LOS to multiple cell towers.

What IS true and a scientifically proven fact is that cell phones at high altitudes create unusually high loads on the cellular network. See what I said earlier about good LOS to *multiple* towers? The end result is that instead of appearing as a user on one tower on a given frequency and nowhere else, it appears as a user or a strong interferer on many towers.

The end result is that while a cell network may have the capacity to server N users on the ground per cell, it can only support a total of around N users in the air for ALL cells within LOS of the aircraft. This is why the ban on airborne cell phones was originally an FCC rule, not an FAA one.

Re:where's the market

Was he near a window or not?

Keep in mind that the metal fuselage of the aircraft provides quite a bit of RF shielding and radiation pattern distortion, I would not be surprised if you could use a cell phone near a window but not from an aisle.

It's a fact that people HAVE used cell phones on airplanes before, and back in the old AMPS analog days, the problem of hitting multiple cells was much worse. Not only did it cause interference problems at the additional cells, it often cause people to be billed multiple times for the same call and other such oddities because the network was designed with the assumption that a phone could NEVER be heard from a distance greater than a certain amount.

In the case of GSM, there is an inherent limit on the distance of a phone from a tower, I forget the exact limit. It could potentially cause GSM phones to completely fail above a certain altitiude, but you only need 1000-2000 feet of altitude (extremely low for an airliner) for the assumptions used in designing cellular networks to all go out the window.

A common misconception

Cellphones, of course, don't work on flights as a general rule. They only work on flights THAT PASS OVER LOTS OF CELL PHONE CELLS. The Pacific, the Gobi, the Sahara, and Greenland are all good examples of places not rich in cell phone cells.

Of course, if by 'plane travel' you unconsciously mean 'plane travel within the continental United States', then sure, you can just use your cell phone.

Re:where's the market

The self-professed liberal radio commentator Ed Schultz is a pilot. He says he uses his cell phone while flying all the time and the guy who is spreading the rumor that they don't work on planes as part of a conspiracy theory is an idiot.

abandoned because of security issues?

I'm not sure if the reason isn't because of security issues. Which public airline wants their passengers to use notebooks during the flight in the times of exploding battery packs and terrorist attacks. Now as there is no mainstream market their Connexion system they abandon it because it's too expensive to carry on just for a small market of private airline carriers.

pricing

Pricing seems to have been not unreasonable

http://www.connexionbyboeing.com/index.cfm?p=cbb.p ricing&lang=en [connexionbyboeing.com]

Internet Flight
Get flat-rate access for your entire flight.

$26.95 for entire flight, including connecting flights within 24 hours of signing in.*

Internet Time
Get 1, 2, or 3 hours of access. Internet Time begins when you sign in and counts down whether you are signed in or not.
Access Price
1 hour $9.95
2 hours $14.95
3 hours $17.95

*Price shown in US dollars. No taxes or duties will be added. Prices are reduced during maintenance periods.

Re:pricing

I think they were overoptimistic at that price. There isn't a "market" for this service: rightly or wrongly, people expect it to be free of charge, like a seat, or in-flight meals on long-haul.

Re:pricing

I'm not so sure... Previously, the only way to communicate with anyone on a 14 hour flight was voice calls which are quite expensive as well. At least this way business travellers could get some extra work done, and not be completely out of touch with the world for a whole 14-hour period. Even hotels charge you for internet access (especially business-oriented ones).

Re:pricing

... which is why I added "especially for business travellers". Some mainstream business-oriented hotels charge as high as $20/day for internet+VPN.

Re:pricing

And in some cases all you get is Web access and no vpn due to proxy config (Westin in Calgary for example)

Re:pricing

Yeah... 27$ for a few hour flight is so ultra cheap.
Considering that most people pay about that much at home for a MONTH of broadband
I'd say pricing was a major sticking point and contributed in no small part to the demise of the service pilot.

Re:pricing

Most home broadband services are not capable of providing broadband internet access 33,000 ft above the Atlantic Ocean.

And for a few hour flight, yeah, it does add up a bit. But when I fly from Melbourne to Glasgow, 9 hours to Hong Kong, 13 hours to London, and 90 minutes to Glasgow, it ends up costing about a dollar an hour.

Re:pricing

Yeah... 27$ for a few hour flight is so ultra cheap.
Considering that most people pay about that much at home for a MONTH of broadband

And what about flight itself! It is so expensive! I can ride my bike for three hours almost for free, but for a flight I have to pay hundreds of euros. Why would anyone want that?

Re:pricing

Understand that Connexion was primarily used by long haul (read overseas) airlines. Companies such as Luftansa provided the service for use on many of their flights. The problem was that almost every US airline company did not want to provide the service, even on coast to coast flights. It was a very hard sell, considering that there was (and still is) a very hard push to get cellphone usage approved for use in flight. Why use a guaranteed connection through Connexion when you could simply fire up your wireless adapter from Sprint and hope that you can get a decent enough connection while flying over western Texas, or the Rockies?

Cost certainly was another reason why it wasn't more widely used, but that excuse doesn't fly (pardon the pun) when you consider most corporate flyers are running on expense accounts, and certainly the cost of connecting up can be covered by those accounts. After all, go to Las Vegas and try to find a free wi-fi spot along the Strip, or stay in the hotel and use their Internet services. You'll pay $9.95 a day (or $49.95 a week) for access (and most places are through the television, not wireless). Yes, I know Las Vegas has a wi-fi grid being developed (such as the free access at the airport), but where the hotels are, they have worked hard to keep those free services from being available to the public.

Re:pricing

A more intelligent thing to do would be to add 5$ surcharge per ticket on business/first class tickets and then propose FREE UNLIMITED BROADBAND CONNECTION on flights. They're paying shitloads of money for those tickets anyway, so the surcharge would pass unnoticed, allowing the company to one-up other airlines in terms of service :)

Oh yeah, I forgot 4- Profit !!

pricing versus performance

Those prices might be bearable if the service worked. The real problem was that it didn't. I used it on Lufthansa. It was the worst laggy modem-speed mess, totally unusable. If you're paying by the hour for something, it's pretty infuriating when it stops working completely for five minutes at a time.

I suspect the real reason they weren't doing business was because of the performance, not the price.

I think the real reason was money.

I think the real reason for their canning this was that they couldn't find the market for charging $50 for 5 minutes of broadband time on the flights!

You have to remember that anything in or around an airport costs as much as 2000 times its actual value. What made you think they wouldn't try this with broadband?

No!

Who will I email for help when deadly snakes are released on my flight?

Insert Plane and/or Snake joke here.

Honestly, you'd think the editors would be wiser than to post this story on today of all days, when Snakes on a Plane goes on general release. (Slashdot story yet?!) Maybe they were concerned about security --- trying to avoid worms on a plane and all that.

Health Issues

Using a cell phone on a plane would be incredibly dangerous to your health.

If you were sitting near me on a plane spouting corporate buzzwords or telling your hard of hearing relatives that "...yes! We're on the plane...", for hours on end, and if I have to hear the latest (and always truly inane and über-irritating) ring tone over and over, then trust me, you would be in terrible terrible terrible danger...

Hich costs

Of course, it does sound like the costs were out of control if they had 560 people working in what's a very small ISP.

Flight times

Speaking personally, if i'm on a flight under 3 hours then by the time you've gone up, had a drink and got your food out of the way, you're getting ready to land again.

Flights that are 4-5 hours, I usually watch the film, read the book or (if i'm really inclined to do some work) I'll fire up my laptop and work on something offline.

Flights that are over 5 hours, I'll generally try and catch some sleep so that I'm refreshed when I get there.

As such, there is only small chance that i'll even think about using a laptop and, even then, the requirement for internet is limited. It doesn't surprise me that this venture is not particually sucessful.

imagine that

the market for this service has not materialized as had been expected.

Translation: not nearly as many people are willing to get jacked for $35/hr for internet access as we had believed.

Though on a completely different angle, at the rate things are going now, soon we won't be able to get on a plane with anything short of our underwear, and will have to fed-ex our luggage to our destination. What happened to the good 'ol days when the people were more scared of the public than the government was?

FedEx it all

...

will have to fed-ex our luggage to our destination.

Actually, I've been doing that for over a decade.

I used to oversee nationial rollouts of systems, which meant I was on the road 95% of the time, often spending only a day or two in each site before moving on. I had enough to worry about without babysitting a suitcase which may or may not arrive on my flight, but was on the road long enough and in different enough climates every week that a roll-on wasn't sufficient.

Enter FedEx.

Every few weeks I'd pack up a load of freshly cleaned/laundered clothes and send them to my major destinations over the next month. Coats & thick socks to cold places, extra shirts & undershirts to hot ones, replacement underwear, etc. I'd put each cache in a cheap collapsable nylon duffel, then into the office for shipping to jobsites with strict instructions to hold for my arrival (there were usually a couple of other boxes full of gear)

Sure I had to pop by a store every so often, but at least I wasn't inconveniently buying a couple of new dress shirts at top dollar every week, and these were already laundered, pressed, etc. Plus when you're from out of town finding a store that sells decent dress shirts or whatever, getting to it, etc. is just another hassle one can do without. My concerns were the job, finding my way back to tonight's hotel, getting fed decently, and getting to the airport; not haberdashery.

Even if I'm paying I still often ship clothes ahead. It is a small expense compared to much of the trip, and frankly skipping the joy of dragging the suitcase to the airport, then the thrill of the lugguage carrousel at the other end (wheel... of... mangled... lugguage! Did mine arrive today or is it on it's way to Guam? Let's wait an hour surrounded by annoying people to find out!), makes it worth every penny. Check in to my hotel, have them send the box to my room, ahh, properly packed clothes, nothing crushed, all ready for wearing during my stay.

Seriously, career advice? Show up every day looking neat & fresh when everyone else is rumpled and worn. Especially true with suits, they can only be worn so many days in a row before getting nasty, no matter how often they're sent out for overnight abuse at outragous rates by the hotel dryclean service. Shipping costs are just a sound investment then.

The real reason this won't fly

The real reason? I couldn't use it very well even if I wanted to pay.

Given how US airlines pack you in like sardines, I can't open up my notebook larger than 60 degrees. That's not enough to see the display properly. The last thing I'm gonna do in this configuration is connect to the Internet.

I hope Lufthansa will take over this service

During my trips to/from Europe, from/to the US, I always enjoyed this service on Lufthansa's airplanes. I wish they could keep it available, alongside allowance for laptops.

Countdown to disconnection

I just pulled up a live chat with Connexion. For those that are interested the service is going to be terminated at the end of the year. (I'll be flying in September/October this year and it will still be operational)

Not to mention...

Even though the new air travel rules say you can't bring computing equipment on board as carry-on, I'm certain they priced themselves right out of any chance of anyone buying the service. No one's going to pay $5/hour just to surf the 'Net.

My own personal belief is that 'Net access should start to become like electricity, gas, water, and other utilities and just as ubiquitous and accessible. If I go to a hotel, it should be free access, wired or wireless. The hotels that want to rape you for $10 a day or more need their heads examined. Sure, it's profitable, but I've selected hotels based solely on whether or not they provided free internet access.

Market not Ready?

Are you kidding, as a network Administrator you wouldn't believe that calls we get about where people are trying to access their VPN or their webmail. Business class or First Class or Coach, there is a market there. Now more than ever it is harder for people to unplug, our need for always updating news and email or IM from friends and family is growing all the time. Boeing should forge ahead with the project, it could be bigger than they think. -W http://williehowe.homelinux.com/ [homelinux.com]

What were they charging? $5/minute or something?

Airlines love to advertise services like this or phones on planes when they first came out and then you discover that it's only slightly less expensive than a heroin habit. This is why airlines are winding down in flight phones - not because of cell phones or security but instead after the first few years of some yahoo calling "Woo Hoo guess what Cleetus I'm callin ya from tha plane!!!!!" the charm of a $40 phone call wears off.

Another Possible Reason

I don't know about your laptops, but I have an HP 8000 series with a ridiculously short battery life (like 90 minutes or less). AFAIK, there are few airlines that offer a/c current for laptops so this may be another reason why the service is failing. I mean, why on earth would I pay for 5 hours of access when I'd only be able to use 1 or 2 at best.

Terminal Strategy

They're just getting ahead of the curve before fuelcell mobiles become standard traveler equipment. Next up, they prekill us after preboarding to prevent suicide bombers.

It's the seats, stupid

Realistically, this kind of service is for business/first class only. When you are crammed into an economy seat with the person in front of you reclined, trying to use a laptop is no fun. Better to get some sleep to reduce jet lag at the other end.

That sucks.

I found Connexion useful, reasonably priced and decently performing.
I helped a customer out over Messenger while flying over the ocean.
These days, a lot of an IT persons work involves frequent internet access, to send mails, check things on the web etc. It's worth paying a few dollars more on your thousand dollar flight in order to make that time productive.

I guess they must have budgeted for domestic airlines using it though, and I guess they are not keen to do so :(

Glad I tried it...

Glad that I actually tried it on Lufthansa! It worked very well. I checked my mail, MSN'ed (with video), and even made Skype calls to buddies on the ground... and they were shocked ('cos I wasn't supposed to make a call at that time.)

And best of all, it was free 'cos they were giving away 30-min Free Trial cards at the airport. Seriously, I feel a bit sad to see such a good service to go away. Yep, I know the service is overpriced...

Lack of demand blamed on terrorists

You see, with such a terror threat we can't be expected to allow those tricky bastards to communicate while in flight, that would be too much. After all, we almost got screwed allowing them to bring on bottled water, so internet is out of the question.

Why have it, we can't use it

Why have in flight internet access if we have to check our exploding laptops as baggage? Can I still buy vodka on this flight? There's a liquid explossive for ya, Vodka, Whiskey.. etc.

Seat pitch?

I find all this talk of internet access in economy hilarious. On most flights with the seat pitch what it is I can barely open a paperback book on the tray table. My laptop? Forget it!! It stays in the overhead bin.

Too bad

I travel regularly on long flights and have actively sought out airlines with an internet connection. To be able to be on-line working has meant that a day on an airplane has been a productive day - I'm sad to see this service disappear.

Laptopsand other stiff on board

Sooner or later that time should come. It's too much work everywhere at least you can rest a bit in plane :)

Re:Well duh....

Terrorists can coordinate their attacks using something called a wristwatch. Perhaps these should be banned from flights too.