
The Science of Wi-Fi on Airplanes - Anon84
https://onezero.medium.com/what-makes-it-possible-to-browse-the-internet-at-35-000-feet-1afaea83eb5
======
air7
> Surfing the internet at 35,000 feet is now something that we expect on
> flights.

Not only do I _not_ expect this, I actually dread the time when it is
ubiquitous and free. Flying is really a unique experience in that it forces
you to sit still, disconnect and entertain yourself for a substantial period.
This has a meditative element for me: I have time to not be updated, to gaze,
to talk to strangers, to be bored... All the things people used to do in the
long long ago. It gives flying a kind of sublime quality because it prepares
me mentally for arriving at a completely different place than the one I left.
It's not just a continuous Instagram fueled frenzy like any other day. Of
course I can choose to not use my phone/internet at any time, but it's so much
harder that it loses its entire allure: Instead of just disengaging I'm
constantly fighting the urge and telling myself "No!". Once it's available on
board I won't be able to resist.

~~~
xwdv
If you want this go on a cruise for a week and disconnect yourself. Don’t buy
the WiFi package, tell everyone you’re in the middle of an ocean, gone.

I don’t get why people treat flying so ceremoniously; it’s a glorified bus
ride. I still got shit to do, and I need access to resources. It is a waste of
time to burn 6 hours when flying cross country for nothing. I could get a lot
done in that time.

~~~
ggm
I travel for work 20 years, 6-7 internationals per year (or more) and I can
tell you 1) its not always cross country and 2) sleep is possibly the most
important thing you can do, if you need to move timezones and be alert and
working when you get there.

I do work in the air. I've had other passengers complain about my keyboard
volume. I also now pace it, police it and don't try to over-do it: The spam-
can is not condusive to good work outcomes always. Its ok for reading and
reflection, and oftentimes they don't depend on connectivity.

------
tyingq
Most of why WiFi on aircraft sucks is because airlines went too early. To be
fair, they had to guess. The better Ka band satellite experience wasn't ready
when most airlines made their initial choice, so most of them went with either
Ku band satellite or air to ground cellular. Both have either technical or
cost barriers to deliver enough bandwidth.

And, the cost for the hardware, FAA certification, and long aircraft downtimes
to get it all installed and working was really high. So they have to recoup
all that before upgrading.

JetBlue guessed better with the timing, waiting until it was ready, so their
experience is better, and pricing isn't terrible as compared to others.

I feel like Southwest made a decent compromise. They went Ku, but use a
separate transponder to give away TV and movies at no charge, and a small
slice of bandwidth to give iMessage and whatsApp for free. The paid wifi is
slow, but comparitively cheap.

The airlines that went with AirCell/GoGo are the worst of the lot. Nothing for
free, and the pricing is outrageous given the experience. Most airlines should
be about ready to upgrade all the old stuff soon, so the experience should
improve. Low orbit tech would help even more.

~~~
rootusrootus
Alaska uses GoGo and they also give away iMessage for free. A weird side
effect is that sometimes you get more than just free messaging. Every time
I've used it, I get full Internet access (though it sure is slow). My wife's
phone only ever gets iMessage. No idea why I get the accidental free upgrade.

~~~
o-__-o
do you have tmobile? I think the service provider is related. on a side note,
I've always gotten iMessage to work on southwest flights without paying. and
on united you can get to certain google hosts without a paywall. I think
that's all I'll share on here for now

~~~
bronco21016
As someone who practically lives on airliners equipped with GoGo I’m curious
what else you have...

What Google hosts work? Would creating a tunnel to something on GCE work?

~~~
tekknolagi
Yes. Or at least, it did for awhile. I set up a small server as a SOCKS proxy
and it worked great.

~~~
o-__-o
I used to do OpenVPN on port 53 (DNS) when all the various airplane wifi first
launched. suuuuper limiting (that 230 MTU tho) and eventually blockaded. then
there was the google XSS-proxy-redirect that I abused for awhile until google
removed it (also hella limiting). then i decided all future jobs must pay for
my airplane wifi habit, and my experience has gotten so much better (though
there are some other tricks I find when i've got nothing to do.. like the
redboot bug that gave me free IFE on a long haul flight :)

~~~
bronco21016
I used both of those as well. They were good while they lasted. Nowadays I
find its best to board a GoGo equipped aircraft with a list of T-Mobile
numbers. When you find one with a T-Mobile One plan you’ve hit gold.

~~~
o-__-o
LOL well first of all, I don't think a TMO plan is required just an unlimited
plan (I have a grandfathered unlimited plan without the throttling that lets
me GoGo) but second, and most importantly, I'm going to tell EVERYONE about
this because you sir are a genius.

------
ggm
At one point connexion by boeing was doing some fearsome BGP re-steering to
try and get traffic efficient ground station routing. I don't know how they
did it (by hand?) or how well it worked, it was anecdata.

I was also told the FAA at one point demanded all aircraft have the same IP
and ASN. I suspect thats magnified bullshit but it is an interesting question,
what FAA compliance in data services means for certifying a configuration
which has to be mutable as you move, as aircraft change lease, as ISPs come
and go.

~~~
tyingq
I doubt the FAA got involved with IP addresses and BGP. They do care about
airgapping , heat, grounding, electrical, antenna radomes and hull integrity,
etc.

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trixie_
Just flew from LA to Boston on JetBlue. Woo free WiFi. Boo everyone is on it,
literally unusable.

Then I flew NY to LA on Alaska. Woo WiFi that isn’t free so there’s bandwidth.
Boo it’s $40 for the flight.

How’s 20 bucks sound?

------
Vordax
I wonder how SpaceX Starlink will disrupt the current players in this market.

~~~
ggm
lowering RTT significantly would immediately alter the equation between ground
facing and sat facing comms.

~~~
tyingq
The lower bandwidth cost is a big deal as well. Though actively tracking and
often swinging to new satellites while going 500mph, with the aircraft tilting
and yawing is probably not easy.

~~~
ch4ch4
Starlink receivers will use solid-state phased array beamforming antennae, so
nothing has to physically "swing" to a new satellite. With a reasonably
accurate accelerometer and inertial sensor, it's easy to compensate for
aircraft movement.

~~~
ggm
I thought even the current GEO orbit antenna were phased array. If not, there
might also be the point that the aerodynamics for a phased array shell may be
less expensive on fuel burden (less air resistance, less turbulence) and
lighter, so cheaper overall. (at a refit cost)

~~~
tyingq
The Connexion antenna was all phased array with no tilt/yaw, but it was huge.
The ones on aircraft now do track the satellite, tilt, etc.

------
Nextgrid
The problem with public Wi-Fi (not just on airplanes) is that there's no
guarantee about what you're gonna get in terms of bandwidth or if there are
any limitations or restrictions.

Most public Wi-Fi for example blocks video websites such as YouTube and
Netflix - if the network is paid you only find out _after_ you've paid with no
easy way to get a refund.

I get why they're blocking them, but I feel like a better solution would just
be to split the bandwidth evenly and give every user a guaranteed bandwidth on
which they're allowed to do _anything_ they want (since it won't disrupt other
users as they can't use more than their allocated bandwidth).

The bandwidth should be advertised upfront along with the price so any
potential customers know what they're getting and whether it'll work for their
application (if it's advertising 1Mbps I know I wouldn't be able to watch
Netflix in HD, but it'll still be fine for e-mails and casual browsing).

Authentication should also be improved; currently it's all captive portals
which are hacks and inefficient for frequent users. If I'm commuting every day
and happy to pay for your Wi-Fi just give me my own WPA2 Enterprise
credentials (unique username/password) so my devices can connect seamlessly
without any further action on my part.

~~~
danilocesar
AirFrance gave me the option to get "Stream speed" in a flight from Paris to
Sao Paulo a few days ago. By "stream speed" I assume it allows netflix. I
didn't test it tough.

------
usamaabid
I was reading up on this article the other day and was wondering if Li-Fi can
be utilized for ATG or Satellite to Plane transmission. Will this increase
stability of internet connection on the plane?

[https://www.eenewseurope.com/news/lifi-trialed-commercial-
ai...](https://www.eenewseurope.com/news/lifi-trialed-commercial-airplanes-0)

I have personally experienced very slow and unstable connection even on the
premium WiFi plan of American Airlines, Alaska, Etihad and Qatar Airways.

------
m-p-3
It's nice that airlines are offering this and I'm sure there is a lot of
people who benefit from this, but I guess I'm used to be prepared and have all
the data I need cached on my system before I leave. And with
FileVault/Bitlocker, I'm not too concerned in case of a theft.

Google makes it quite easy these days with File Stream, Gmail offline mode,
etc. And for multimedia, I just download / sync content I'm likely to watch
beforehand on Netflix or Plex.

------
hoseja
3\. Starlink

~~~
fsargent
Thank you. Was very disappointed to not find that in the discussion.

Looks like it’s already being trialed for military C-12 planes.

[https://www.space.com/spacex-starlink-satellite-internet-
ser...](https://www.space.com/spacex-starlink-satellite-internet-
service-2020.html)

------
thedudeabides5
Pumped for the day when Roko's basilisk comes _this_ close to taking over the
world's financial system, but is thwarted by crappy airplane wifi.

RB's up there excited, all ready to press the big red button after departing
JFK in Air Force One, but can't because it forgot to download the mandatory
app before take-off.

Foiled again!

~~~
Dylan16807
The term "basilisk" is referring to the thought experiment itself, not the AI,
by the way. A basilisk is something where perceiving it damages you, more or
less.

The AI is nameless or might be referred to as Omega.

~~~
thedudeabides5
ah my bad. guess that's why no one liked the joke. gotta be accurate with your
Omega jokes on HN or people will shred you.

