[AusNOG] WIFI/Internet on Planes

[Michael Kratz]

Looks like it's already happening (or getting close):

http://www.ausbt.com.au/telstra-tests-4g-inflight-internet-for-sydney-melbourne-route



From: John Edwards <jaedwards at gmail.com<mailto:jaedwards at gmail.com>>
Date: Tuesday, 8 July 2014 12:03 PM
To: "curtis at bayne.com.au<mailto:curtis at bayne.com.au>" <curtis at bayne.com.au<mailto:curtis at bayne.com.au>>
Cc: "ausnog at ausnog.net<mailto:ausnog at ausnog.net>" <ausnog at ausnog.net<mailto:ausnog at ausnog.net>>
Subject: Re: [AusNOG] WIFI/Internet on Planes

Let's consider:

- Devices must be switched off during takeoff and landing.
- Once an aircraft reaches cruising altitude and you can turn on your device, it's already in a "regional" area
- ACMA "regional" boundaries allow for cheap spectrum licences in bands not useful for regular handheld mobile (>3.5Ghz)
- Boeing and Cisco have certified WiFi solutions for inside the plane
- 40Mhz of spectrum in clear air on LTE advanced will give you gigabit speeds, 100km cell radius, compatibility with existing networks and handover that is ok with 600km/h
- If you're pointing an antenna "straight up" then it doesn't need a tower, just some way to keep cows and sheep off it
- NBN is bringing backhaul and connectivity to all regional areas (ok, maybe this part is stretching belief)
- There are enough flights between Melbourne and Sydney each day to pay for a national network (minus Perth), based on just a 10% takeup.

VC's feel free to contact me off list ;)

John



On 8 July 2014 10:43, Curtis Bayne <curtis at bayne.com.au<mailto:curtis at bayne.com.au>> wrote:
Skeeve,

It's the ground connectivity segment which is challenging - there is no unified ground network in Australia. The USA has had a long legacy of allocating and using spectrum for air to ground communications (remember Airfone?).

Satellite connectivity for planes is hard and expensive (Inmarsat's Swift64s seem to be the standard from my limited exposure). The best we could probably hope for is that Telstra puts a few sky-facing sectors on NextG towers along busy routes and someone designs a fuselage-mounted 850Mhz omnidirectional MIMO antenna that doesn't crack and cause rapid depressurization of the craft like some of the SATCOM antennas ;).

Regards,
Curtis


On Tue, Jul 8, 2014 at 11:05 AM, Skeeve Stevens <skeeve+ausnog at eintellegonetworks.com<mailto:skeeve+ausnog at eintellegonetworks.com>> wrote:
Virgin are half way there... they are introducing/have introduced WiFi in-flight entertainment systems so you can BYOD... makes a hell of a lot of sense.

Shouldn't be too much of a drama to add internet to it.


...Skeeve

Skeeve Stevens - eintellego Networks Pty Ltd
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On Tue, Jul 8, 2014 at 10:40 AM, Curtis Bayne <curtis at bayne.com.au<mailto:curtis at bayne.com.au>> wrote:
Joel,

It's absolutely crazy this isn't available in Australia. The FAA has allowed transmitters on American flights for a number of years now and CASA, as usual, are dragging the chain.

Mobile phone reception on planes actually isn't too bad below 25000ft considering the downward elevation with which the sectors are usually aligned. I've got a friend who is a commercial domestic airline pilot - he reckons the bottom on the cockpit window is the best place to stick your phone on hotspot mode in Boeing aircraft ;)


Regards,
Curtis


On Tue, Jul 8, 2014 at 10:26 AM, Zone Networks - Joel <joel at zonenetworks.com.au<mailto:joel at zonenetworks.com.au>> wrote:
Hi Guys

Slightly off topic but was wondering if anyone has recently used the internet connection on international flights from Sydney to USA

I know the following airlines have it available

Singapore
Emirates
United Airlines

Pity Qantas doesn’t…

Have used it a lot within Domestic US flights but since I fly mostly Qantas have no experience with other airlines on International flights

Please reply off the list unless others are interested as well.

Regards
Joel

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