American Airline Broadband Won't Use Website FiltersThough VoIP will certainly be blocked... ( old news - 01:00PM Wednesday Jun 25 2008) tags: business · wireless · alternativesTipped by Annmarie  Boing Boing has a little more detail on Aircell's "GoGo" service that's going to be offered by both American Airlines (the maiden voyage is this week) and Virgin Airlines. We already knew that the service would cost $9.95 for flights three hours or shorter and $12.95 for longer flights, but executives are now offering some additional details. Some websites will be free to access (American's AA.com site, news headlines and Frommers' travel guides), and neither company will employ website filters (though VoIP will be blocked): Where American is firm, however, is about VoIP: no phone calls from the plane! Backelin said, "For VoIP, Aircell is going essentially make VoIP unusable; we are focusing on a data-only service." While some folks have laughed at the notion that Aircell could entirely suppress voice, I have noted in the past that introducing jitter, dropping packets, and suppressing known forms of VoIP data based on scheduling and frequency would go a long way to making real-time communication impossible without affecting downloads and streaming video. The current Aircell GoGo system also equips each plane with an 800GB server they haven't decided what to do with yet (caching Internet content and multimedia are both considered). Today's American Airlines stress test of the system will be followed by a broader launch in a "few weeks".
Related:- Minneapolis Wi-Fi Network Stuck At 82% Complete
- Martin: Chances Of Free Wireless Plan 'Dim'
- Startup Offers Smart Phone Rentals
- 'Clear' Launches In Portland Next Week
- iPhone 3G Unlocked
- AT&T's 2G Customers See A Downgrade
- AT&T Looking For Femtocell Testers
- Verizon's Open Development Initiative? So Far It's A Joke
|
 rantou
join:2002-06-04
Richardson, TX | Unfiltered, unlimited?!? I wonder if along with VoIP blocking they will also block underage pornography?!? | |
|  | 
Chiyo
Save Me Konata-Chan
Premium
join:2003-02-20
Minneapolis, MN
clubs:
 ·Comcast
edit:
June 25th, @01:01PM
| Re: Unfiltered, unlimited?!? I don't wanna sit next to some guy getting a stiffy watching some pron (illegal or not) I mean you've got idiots who go to public libraries and wack off to pron whats stopping the same idiots from a flight YOU CAN'T GET OFF OF?
block porn and voip please if you want real time communication use IM.
@Chiyo: The plane is taking off
@Chiyo: The plane is sinking in the ocean
@chiyo: The rescue boats haven't come yet
@Chiyo: Sharks are around us please help | |
| | | 
koitsu
Premium
join:2002-07-16
Mountain View, CA
| Re: Unfiltered, unlimited?!? said by Chiyo :... whats stopping the same idiots from a flight YOU CAN'T GET OFF OF? Or from a flight you can't get off on.
I made a funny! Come on, it was funny. Laugh dammit. | |
| | | | 
JamesPC
join:2005-10-12
Orange, CA | Re: Unfiltered, unlimited?!? hahahaha. | |
| | | 
Finalnight
join:2002-05-10
Omaha, NE
clubs:
·Cox HSI
| said by Chiyo :@Chiyo: The plane is taking off @Chiyo: The plane is sinking in the ocean @chiyo: The rescue boats haven't come yet @Chiyo: Sharks are around us please help That made my day. | |
| | | fiberguy
My views are my own.
Premium
join:2005-05-20
| Oh boy.. here we are already.. the "I" don't wanna sit next to..
Everyone has a gripe about what someone else may or may not do.
You know what I want to not sit next to? A whiner! If people are that annoyed about, I dunno, LIFE, then maybe they should live the hermit.
Even a good Christian does not judge.
Screw the broadband then and just sit down, strap up, shut up and wait until you get to where you're going. Seriously.. I also don't want to sit next to anyone that's looking at my laptop - mostly why I fly first class to get away from people. Where's your common courtesy to leave others alone?
I'd rather not sit next to someone "chatting" on line.. you know how annoying the "tap tap tap tap" is while someone sits there typing about something they saw on the CW network?
When does the complaint end?
Why not block ebay, IM, photo sharing - as I Could care less to sit next to someone sharing photos of their new car.. I mean, we all drive cars.. block MySpace too, face book.. i mean, come on. | |
| | | |
Chiyo
Save Me Konata-Chan
Premium
join:2003-02-20
Minneapolis, MN
clubs: | Re: Unfiltered, unlimited?!? Your failing to see the problem. There are two things taping on your keyboard is one thing sitting next to someone who feels they need to watch or view some porn is a another.
sometime typing on there keyboard so what throw on my headphones. | |
| | | | | 
johnqpublic
Premium
join:2002-03-22
Xanadu
| Re: Unfiltered, unlimited?!? said by Dogfather :They're going to rely on passengers not being dumbasses and the flight crew. They say the flight crew will handle complaints just as they would if someone brought aboard a porno mag or DVD. You mean the same people that have to watch out for people lighting their shoes on fire, firing up cigarettes, getting drunk and screaming obscenities, running to the door and trying to open it up midflight, et al.?
So much for the days when they just had to play with the flotation device, oxygen masks, magazines, and refreshments.  | |
| | | | fiberguy
My views are my own.
Premium
join:2005-05-20
| Re: Unfiltered, unlimited?!? You rally don't fly, do you? You make it sound like every flight resembles the one on the movie Airplane.
Where are all these things happening? You have any idea how many flights there are a day? You have ANY idea how IMPOSSIBLE it is to open a door mid-flight? (if you knew the basic mechanics of a door, you'd lose that myth too)
I fly 3 flights a month, minimum.. maybe I luck out and just miss out on all these flights.. with thousands and thousands of flights a day, I can say I should play the lottery since I happen to just be on the well behaved flight. | |
| | Kearnstd
Elf Wizard
join:2002-01-22
Mullica Hill, NJ
| alright, with a power jack one could waste away that 6hr flight playing WoW!. latency would suck but just to say you have gamed from 35,000ft.....
blocking VOIP is a good thing as people have proven they cant be polite on trains with their cellphones and in a plane you cant just get up and goto another car.
--
[65 Arcanist]Filan(High Elf) Zone: Broadband Reports | |
| | | | | | | DSGCLOUTIER
Premium
join:2008-04-27
Calgary, AB | Re: Unfiltered, unlimited?!? What about the server running its own DNS Server? or caching DNS entries? Wouldn't this speed it up? | |
| | | | | 
en102
Canadian, eh?
join:2001-01-26
Valencia, CA | Re: Unfiltered, unlimited?!? Who says that they would want to.
Easiest way is to limit the pipe. 512 kbps with high latency should be enough to keep most people from wanting to run VoIP or similar.
--
Canada = Hollywood North | |
| | | | | | fiberguy
My views are my own.
Premium
join:2005-05-20
edit:
June 26th, @04:47AM
| Re: Unfiltered, unlimited?!? wrong message. | |
| | | | | | |
en102
Canadian, eh?
join:2001-01-26
Valencia, CA | Re: Unfiltered, unlimited?!? It may be... but then again, its American Airline (horrible service is part of their tradition).
--
Canada = Hollywood North | |
| | | | | | | | fiberguy
My views are my own.
Premium
join:2005-05-20 | Re: Unfiltered, unlimited?!? no no.. I mean I posted to the wrong message..  I wasn't critiquing yours.. | |
| | | 
maartena
Nice'n Round.
Premium
join:2002-05-10
Orange, CA
·RoadRunner Cable
| said by Kearnstd :alright, with a power jack one could waste away that 6hr flight playing WoW!. latency would suck but just to say you have gamed from 35,000ft..... You would not enjoy it. The satellites for communication are in geo-stationary orbit at 35.000 km (or roughly 20.000 miles) above the earth. The entire return ping would be somewhere around 700 to 800ms.
For website browsing or chatting, such latency doesn't matter. Even for streaming video it is not a problem. It may take a few seconds more for the stream to get started, and you may need a little more buffering, but it'll work.
And quite frankly, this type of internet is meant for that kind of stuff: webbrowsing, e-mail, IM chatting, etc.
And I would really not mind if they block all porn/shady websites. I don't mind the guy next to me reading up on his stocks or chatting to the misstress... but I could really do without people right next to me trying to skype home or watching porn flicks. | |
| | | | 
Toadman
How do you like these Apples
join:2001-11-28
Medina, OH
| Re: Unfiltered, unlimited?!? said by maartena :said by Kearnstd :alright, with a power jack one could waste away that 6hr flight playing WoW!. latency would suck but just to say you have gamed from 35,000ft..... You would not enjoy it. The satellites for communication are in geo-stationary orbit at 35.000 km (or roughly 20.000 miles) above the earth. The entire return ping would be somewhere around 700 to 800ms. For website browsing or chatting, such latency doesn't matter. Even for streaming video it is not a problem. It may take a few seconds more for the stream to get started, and you may need a little more buffering, but it'll work. And quite frankly, this type of internet is meant for that kind of stuff: webbrowsing, e-mail, IM chatting, etc. And I would really not mind if they block all porn/shady websites. I don't mind the guy next to me reading up on his stocks or chatting to the misstress... but I could really do without people right next to me trying to skype home or watching porn flicks. Aircell uses towers on the ground, not sat communication. | |
| | | fiberguy
My views are my own.
Premium
join:2005-05-20
| I don't think they are putting the service on board for gaming.. look at the price, alone, should tell you. Also, look at the flight routes they are targeting. It's more of a service designed for business and casual users to stay connected.
Gaming, and high impact services, maybe in the future, but right now, it's just what every telco and PCS CEO would dream of.. surfing the web, checking email, and chatting.
Not everything that's rolled out is ready for mainstream and have everything tossed at it. I'm sure many people would LOVE it to be able to handle games.. but, doubt it's anywhere near it for now.. | |
| | Kearnstd
Elf Wizard
join:2002-01-22
Mullica Hill, NJ
| even caching dns would have minor latency, however gaming would just be for the humor of trying it from an airplane. in truth you would be best off camping DSLR and checking email. 
of course business folks will likely be expected to in the near future VPN in from the plane.
--
[65 Arcanist]Filan(High Elf) Zone: Broadband Reports | |
| | | | | | | jester121
join:2003-08-09
Lake Zurich, IL | AAAAAAHHH! NETWORK NEUTRALITY, NETWORK NEUTRALITY!!
C'mon people, let's stir up some trouble, these rich corporate fat cats can't mess with our VOIP.
/sarcasm | |
| | 
funchords
Robb Topolski
Premium,MVM
join:2001-03-11
Hillsboro, OR
 ·Verizon Online DSL
 ·Skype
·Comcast
edit:
June 25th, @02:51PM
| Re: AAAAAAHHH! said by jester121 :NETWORK NEUTRALITY, NETWORK NEUTRALITY!! C'mon people, let's stir up some trouble, these rich corporate fat cats can't mess with our VOIP. /sarcasm I'm not sarcastic at all. Prohibit voice calls by creating new rules or enforcing existing rules about disturbing behavior.
Network filters all seem to have unwanted side effects -- not just technically, but on the policy side as well.
Why can't someone silently use VOIP with a Text-to-speech and a speech-to-text converter?
said by en102 :Latency is the issue. I know connecting to Skype across a throttled VPN, tunnelled SSH throught a squid proxy half way across the country is enough to make it unusable. The throttled connection makes latency spikes too high to be usable. Exactly. So let that be the natural "filter," and leave the tubes alone and uninspected!
--
Robb Topolski -= funchords.com =- Hillsboro, Oregon
HTTP is the new Bandwidth Hog...
| |
| | 
dvd536
as Mr. Pink as they come
Premium
join:2001-04-27
Phoenix, AZ
| said by jester121 :NETWORK NEUTRALITY, NETWORK NEUTRALITY!! C'mon people, let's stir up some trouble, these rich corporate fat cats can't mess with our VOIP. /sarcasm you know what its all about. people aren't going to spend $5/minute on the airfones if they can bring a magicjack on board, thats the REAL reason voip is blocked.
--
When I gez aju zavateh na nalechoo more new yonooz tonigh molinigh - Ken Lee | |
| | | ricep5
Premium
join:2000-08-07
Jacksonville, FL
·Comcast Formerly ..
·AT&T CallVantage
·AT&T Southeast
| Re: AAAAAAHHH! "you know what its all about. people aren't going to spend $5/minute on the airfones if they can bring a magicjack on board, thats the REAL reason voip is blocked."
Airphone is dead and the handsets, if not removed have been deactivated on most planes. Obsolete technology.
Interesting in how people resent cell phones on planes when Airphones have been there for years. Of course, civility of the world has taken a downward plunge in the interim. | |
| | | | jester121
join:2003-08-09
Lake Zurich, IL | Re: AAAAAAHHH! Part of the $5/minute cost was making sure that people wouldn't sit and gab for hours on end. With unlimited free VOIP (or cell phone rates) it becomes a free for all. | |
| | | | | ricep5
Premium
join:2000-08-07
Jacksonville, FL
·Comcast Formerly ..
·AT&T CallVantage
·AT&T Southeast
| Re: AAAAAAHHH! said by jester121 :Part of the $5/minute cost was making sure that people wouldn't sit and gab for hours on end. With unlimited free VOIP (or cell phone rates) it becomes a free for all. Agreed, though I do recall sitting next to one who used an Airphone for over 30 minutes. It even dropped once and they redialed and continued. Nothing critical in the conversation, just life in general. I plugged in my CD player and tuned them out. | |
| 
NickD
Premium
join:2000-11-17
Princeton Junction, NJ
clubs: | VoIP Blocks Do they block VoIP because of interference to the equipment? That's why they block cell phones now. | |
| |
See 8 replies to this post | |
Hehe
@ssa.gov | net neutrality? Would net neutrality allow them to block VOIP?
I guess they should block torrents too. | |
| | lordofwhee
join:2007-10-21
Everett, WA | Re: net neutrality? Would you like a flight with two or three asshats yelling into a mic for four hours? I thought not. | |
|
Moon1234
@tds.net
| Not possible to block VoIP Many corporate customers who would be using their own encrypted VoIP would not be blocked. If the data is encrypted they would not be able to tell if it is VoIP, streaming radio, Streaming TV, Etc.
I think this is designed to block the vonage, broadvoice, etc. customers. The airlines sell phone service and they would not appreciate loosing that $1/minute phone business.
I have used my companies encrypted VoIP service from hotels and other venues that block clear SIP/MGCP calls. Bring up an AES encryted VPN link to your company/home and your VoIP calls will go through just fine. It will sound more like a walkie talkie with the latency, but it will work.
Wearing a discreet headset and talking quietly will not make the plane sound like a stock room floor. It is the idiot that insists on screamin into their cell that would cause the problems. Eveyrone knows someone like that. | |
| flyingjoey
join:2005-11-07
Jersey City, NJ
 ·Sprint Mobile Broa..
 ·Verizon FIOS
| As cool as this may be... Have people taking into consideration that folks will get tired of even web browsing or chatting.
I keep hearing about laptops on flights, they haven't said anything about providing power to each seat.
Most laptops will die somewhere between 2 and 3 hours. On my macbook pro 17" all i get is 3.5 hours and that's by me dimming the screen turning off the BT and the wireless.
on a 6 hour flight across the pond, 2 to 3 hours worth of computing 3-4 hours of playing solitaire with a deck of cards. | |
| | | |
|
|
·