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Re: [telecom] F.C.C. Advances Plan for Faster In-Flight Wi-Fi

Most of the uses will probably be with tablets and smartphones, not laptops.

And it's not just for business people -- what about all the young people who can't stand to be disconnected from Facebook, Twitter, etc. for 5 minutes?

Reply to
Barry Margolin
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Has anybody noticed that the in-flight movies and other gewgaws

>airlines tried to stuff down the passengers' throats have vanished as >quickly as they appeared?

No, I haven't, actually. There have been in-flight movies on long-distance flights for at least 25 years to my personal knowledge, and I haven't heard anything about getting rid of them. Nor do I recall them ever being "stuff[ed] down passengers' throats". What airline do [you] fly on, Bill?

In-flight WiFi, IMNSHO, is another instance of a solution in search of >a problem. Business executives who /might/ have need of instant >connectivity are riding in first class and don't care what it costs, >and the plebians in the back don't want to "surf the web" at 30,000 >feet, or any other altitude.

I'm not sure what [airline you fly on], but it doesn't remotely match my experience of air travel.

Pilots, who are cursed with a navigation system designed before >television, are worried about yet-another-source-of-interference.

No commercial aircraft uses nondirectional beacons any more. Most if not all use GPS, which will soon be a requirement, in addition to their inertial navigation system and VORTAC/DME receivers.

Flight attendants, who deal with heavy bags and expensive cameras and >other trinkets falling out of overhead bins, are loathe to encourage >passengers to bring expensive and delicate laptops into the aircraft, >adding yet-another-headache of lost, damaged, stolen, or misplaced >electronics to their already burdemsome duties.

Have you *ever* flown, Bill? Nobody, and I mean *nobody*, entrusts "expensive and delicate laptops" to baggage handlers. Most business travelers don't check any baggage at all if they can help it. That's why the TSA people are always shouting in the screening lines for people to take their laptops out of their bags to run through the X-ray machines. It would be a shock if at least one person sitting near [me] didn't take out a laptop -- all too often it's the person sitting in front of me.

-GAWollman

Reply to
Garrett Wollman

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