
How Europe is totally owning our in-flight electronics policy, again - Libertatea
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2013/11/14/how-europe-is-totally-owning-our-in-flight-electronics-policy-again/
======
selectodude
Wait, how is a flat rate internet service using WiFi worse than allowing
airlines to implement some sort of LTE antenna booster on every plane so I
have the opportunity to have no idea what I'm about to pay to use my phone?

What a horrendous article.

~~~
JonFish85
"Americans are feeling pretty smug after winning the right to use portable
electronics on airplanes during takeoff and landing. In fact, we even beat
Europe to the new rules by several weeks."

WTF? That's how you start an article? I haven't seen anyone feeling smug at
all about this ruling. Talk about trying to manufacture an issue!

~~~
mhurron
It's very important now to frame everything as a 'Us v. Them'. No one cares
about anything unless they are on the winning team.

------
georgecmu
I would be perfectly happy with in-flight phone calls being expressly
prohibited without any technical justification. Can you imagine being forced
to spend 6 or more hours next to someone with a bad case of glossolalia?

~~~
nlh
I have a feeling that enough people agree with you on this that regardless of
the legal / regulatory situation, a social framework is going to emerge that
pretty strongly discourages talking on the phone on a plane.

Even today, if you talk for too long or too loudly on an Amtrak train or a
public bus, you'll get some pretty strong death stares from other passengers.
Many will come right out and tell you to shut up.

If the rules fail us, peer pressure will step up :)

------
wjoe
I'm not really sure how 3G/LTE is better than WiFi, at least in technology
terms.

I've had WiFi on one flight in Europe (London to Oslo with Norwegian
Airlines), it was free to use for everyone on the flight. It was very slow and
unreliable though, and I spent half of the hour long flight just trying to get
things to load, unsure if certain ports/sites were blocked or if it was just
being slow.

That said, this problem is presumably from the connection between the WiFi
access point on the plane and the satellites. I don't really see how using a
3G/LTE on the plane will be any better, if it's still relying on the
(presumably small, low powered) equipment on the plane and a satellite
connection.

So I'm not convinced that this is an improvement over in flight WiFi, besides
a way for carriers to extract more roaming data charges from us. That said,
we've also got better laws over roaming data charges within Europe coming in
over the next few years too.

~~~
Uberphallus
Nice-London flight here, it was slow and unreliable too. Instant messaging
worked reasonably better than checking websites, but upload speed was rather
slow (1 min to share a picture in WhatsApp).

Still, it's an amazing service for free, the one you expect to pay extra for.

------
smileysteve
Wifi on flights uses less battery, is likely faster, is a better fit for the
small environments of flights, and because it bypasses the carrier routing
(and business politics) should be faster and possibly more secure.

Im perfectly okay with having wifi instead of 4g.

------
kjf
So I guess leet speak has evolved to such a place where traditional
publications like the Washington Post are using it sincerely in their
headlines.

------
Theodores
What would be fun is if planes formed their own 'Iridium' style network,
communicating with the planes in front and behind them on their flight
corridor, with airports as base stations. Only data need be carried (no voice)
as who really wants people yapping away on a plane? The transmitter on the
plane would need to assume a plane roughly 100 miles or so in front, it would
be roughly pointing in the right direction so the inverse square would apply
to that, rather than the deal with the satellite where the 'bird' is 20000 or
so miles away, at some angle above the equator, that has to be pointed at with
some complicated servo arrangement. The TTL should be improved with an ad-hoc
above the clouds network too.

