

JetBlue to offer free inflight wifi in 2013 - raldi
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-501465_162-57514905-501465/jetblue-to-offer-free-in-flight-wi-fi-in-2013/

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flatline3
The WiFi on Virgin America has grown steadfastly slower as more people became
aware of it, and despite the $10-$17 price point, has now reached the point of
being nearly totally unusable on most of my flights.

Unless Jet Blue has a solution to provide significantly more bandwidth, I
can't imagine that free WiFi is going to be less saturated than the paid
option on Virgin.

~~~
raldi
They claim it will have "exponentially more bandwidth than any other product
in commercial aviation today". I know that's an incorrect and meaningless use
of the term "exponential", but the bottom line is they're claiming it _will_
be a lot faster:

<http://www.jetblue.com/flying-on-jetblue/wifi/>

~~~
d503
It's claimed the system will offer 12mbps or more to each passenger via
ViaSat-1, which should offer 140 Gbps total throughput ("the highest capacity
satellite in the world" with "more capacity than all current North American
satellites combined")

[http://www.viasat.com/news/new-exede-internet-for-
commercial...](http://www.viasat.com/news/new-exede-internet-for-commercial-
airlines-viasat-designed-deliver-12-mbps-each-passenger-flight)

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untog
I used wifi on a flight for the first time a few weeks ago- it was fantastic.
Not perfect, but it converted six hours of dead time into productive time.

It got me thinking about how driverless cars will represent a similar change.
They seem like they are one technical innovation that we'll definitely see in
my working lifetime, and I'm looking forward to it. Imagine being able to
start and end your working day on a laptop in the car, rather than wasting
time commuting.

~~~
johns
Wifi on flights has had the exact opposite effect on my productivity while
flying. I used to be able to churn out interesting new things because I had no
choice but to focus on them. Now I'm too weak to not be distracted by email,
Twitter and HN to pass the time.

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mcargian

        will offer free basic Wi-Fi services until the service is installed on 30 airplanes
    

While nice to have, if the installation is anything like Gogo (less than 24
hours) it doesn't sound like it will be free for long.

~~~
epoxyhockey
Another link-bait post title. Just like the Manchester getting rid of airport
scanners (catch: to be replaced by another type of scanner) and Russia's
secret diamond field (catch: of hard to mine industrial-quality-only diamonds,
which wouldn't affect the market).

~~~
raldi
_"Our source claims that following this initial trial period, the service will
remain free for "basic email and browsing" purposes, though you'll obviously
be paying if you hope to stream Netflix during those cross-country flights."_

[http://www.theverge.com/2012/9/17/3347776/jetblue-
inflight-w...](http://www.theverge.com/2012/9/17/3347776/jetblue-inflight-wi-
fi-viasat-q1-2013)

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khuey
I do most of my domestic flying on Delta, which has in flight Wifi (via Gogo)
available on most (if not all) of their aircraft. The quality is really hit or
miss. I've had flights where the connection was good enough to download large
files (debugging symbols from Microsoft) and have one way Skype sessions (me
typing, the other person with audio/video). I've also had flights where I
could barely check my email. I'm not sure if it's the route flown or the other
passengers using the connection or what, but the highly variable quality is
annoying.

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roryreiff
Hopefully other airlines will follow suit. Airlines find any reason they can
to upsell passengers, so it is refreshing to see one that will be rolling out
a service for free. This fact alone makes we want to support their business.

