* Illustration: Peter Grundy * It's about friggin' time. That's what you'll say to yourself at some point in the next few months when you realize you can finally surf the Web from seat 17C. Alaska, American, Southwest, and Virgin America all plan to roll out airborne Wi-Fi this summer. The price to you: about $6 to $13 a flight. The services will work in one of two ways — Southwest and Alaska are using satellite-based broadband from Row 44, a California company, while American and Virgin are opting for a cell phone tower system from Aircell in Illinois. Cell towers? Yep, turns out cell signals don't necessarily interfere with instrumentation — you can't use mobile phones on planes because they cause network headaches and annoy fellow passengers. Here's how Vi@gra spam and photos of grammatically challenged cats will find you on the red-eye.
... Via Cell Tower (Aircell) Data is transmitted over a patchwork of 92 existing cell towers covering the continental US. Because there's nothing blocking the signal, each tower offers a coverage radius of up to 250 miles. The downsides: a paltry (buffering ... buffering ...) 3-Mbps throughput for each plane. Plus the cost to passengers is $12.95 per flight — more than Row 44's service — and at launch the system will work only in the lower 48.
... Via Satellite (Row 44) Signals are beamed from geosynchronous satellites orbiting 22,500 miles up. The data rate is roughly 30 Mbps per plane (expect low-end DSL speeds once a few dozen passengers log on), and the system works across international borders and over oceans (though it will be available only in North America at first). And even though it costs the airlines more than Aircell's system to install, passengers pay less — as little as $6 per flight.
START Previous: Kirby Morgan 57 Helmet: Don't Dive in Deep and Disgusting Waters Without It Next: Expired-Tired-Wired
