Aircell, those guys who want to put WiFi on airplanes across the country, finally received the FAA certifications it needed to start building its equipment into airplanes proper.
It recently finished its nationwide network of transponders that would bounce the signals up to the airplane, and with this last hurdle out of the way, we could conceivably start seeing WiFi-equipped aircraft this year. Good news for those of us who travel often.
I still don’t believe in internet access within an airplane while it is airborne. There just is too much room for something to go wrong, i.e. receiving/sending terrorist signals. Also, with the way airline companies are jamming seats into airplanes, who has room to use their laptop? Only business and first class users will have access.
I bet that internet will be very expensive, almost as prohibitive as making an in-flight call.
I personally hope this never gets off the ground. I for one do not want to lose the last place where the internet is not out to get me (and work has no access to me either).
I think it’s a cool idea – but doubtful that it will be very useable for anything beyond some email checking. Frontier has had awesome DirecTV for sometime – however depending on flight location and tilt of the plane, the signal does go away. It’s hard to imagine that WiFi will be very strong from the ground to a plane flying at 37000 ft., but as with anything we will see!