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Will Connexion throttle/block VoIP traffic?
Questions galore surround sky-high broadband
A blogger uses Skype over Boeing's Connexion broadband service at 30,000 feet to complete free calls; a future Verizon's Airfone probably doesn't like. There's plenty of questions surrounding the future in-flight broadband & VoIP: Will U.S. airlines ever be able to afford it - when pillows are a fiscal luxury? Will the FCC approve the use of cell-phones in planes? Will in-flight broadband carriers eventually throttle or block VoIP traffic to force users to pay higher fees via in-cabin services?
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inteller
Sociopaths always win.
join:2003-12-08
Tulsa, OK

inteller

Member

latency

The latency on this will be so bad you wont WANT to use VoIP.
nikolajn
join:2005-03-15
denmark

nikolajn

Member

Re: latency

I just had same experience with Skype on SAS (see »nyholm.net/decibel/archi ··· 10k.html ).

Roundtrip pings were between 400 and 750 ms, meaning a timelag between 200 and 375 ms, not perfect but very bareable indeed.

/n

Chris 313
Because It's Geekier
Premium Member
join:2004-07-18
Houma, LA

Chris 313

Premium Member

Sneaky bastards!

If i used Skype on a plane to make my calls, i'd say great! If i did it again 3 months later and found my calls blocked because they'd want me to use the "Air-phone" instead and rack up a huge bill, i'd never pick up the phone while flying.

oroper
Patriots Rule
join:2004-06-01
Beverly, MA

1 edit

oroper

Member

Bah!!!

Bad move FCC

I don't think I could stand the dude/dudette in the seat next to me yacking off my ear while I'm trying to relax.

Maybe they should have a cellphone/no cellphone class for us

ThirdShifter
Premium Member
join:2002-03-16
Wethersfield, CT

ThirdShifter

Premium Member

do cell phone even work from the air

do cell phone even work from the air? I turnen on my cell phone once at take off.. and as soon as it gets to about 10k feet there was no signal.

fireflier
Coffee. . .Need Coffee
Premium Member
join:2001-05-25
Limbo

fireflier

Premium Member

Re: do cell phone even work from the air

I know they work in a Cessna 172 at 3000 feet fine. . .Just don't tell the FAA or FCC.
Spetsnazgg
join:2004-01-09
Lake Oswego, OR

Spetsnazgg to ThirdShifter

Member

to ThirdShifter
I remember reading somewhere about cell phone usage on airplanes. There are two reasons they don't like you using them online, one is the possible magnetic interference with the airplanes electronics and two the distruption of the cell phone network.

When you use a cell phone you are automatically assigned a tower that gives you the best signal. Since you are on the ground, there are fewer towers that can "see" you, therefore it is easy to assign you one. If you were on a plane (ex: high up in the sky) there are many many towers that could "see" you and since the plane is flying at a high speed, your assigned tower would change rapidly. This could lead to a overloaded cell network fairly easily if everybody had their cell phones on.

So yes, they do work in the air, just not recommended.

ThirdShifter
Premium Member
join:2002-03-16
Wethersfield, CT

1 edit

ThirdShifter

Premium Member

Re: do cell phone even work from the air

said by Spetsnazgg:

I
So yes, they do work in the air, just not recommended.
I thought the same until i actually tried it myself. It didn't work in my case.. but as soon as the plane came down to about 5k Feet the signal came back.

FLECOM
Bay Networks Freak
Premium Member
join:2003-03-03
Miami, FL

FLECOM to Spetsnazgg

Premium Member

to Spetsnazgg
no and no

Nick
Purveyor of common sense
MVM
join:2000-10-29
Smithtown, NY

Nick

MVM

depends

Depends on the altitude and speed of plane.

When you're flying at 500mph by the time you register with tower A, you're out of it's range and by tower C...

cowspotter
join:2000-09-11
Ashburn, VA

cowspotter

Member

cell "towers" inside cabin

Its true that the signal does not work at cruising altitude. The plan is for the airlines to install mini cell tranceivers insid the cabin so passengers use their cell phone to communicate with the tranceiver which then relays the signal to the ground (whether its straight to a ground station or gets bounced off a satellite is anybodys guess). If you're thinking that this means you just get to use your regular minutes, don't be so sure. If the airline is installing the tranceiver, they basically become the carrier of the signal, and you can be sure that they'll want to charge a roaming fee for that. There's also news of a new cruise ship installing a cell towerish type device to do the same thing when you're in the middle of the ocean, and i don't think they're quite ready to give up the $5/min that they currently make off of phone calls. Now, the only question for airlines and the FCC is which technologies are going to be included. CDMA? TDMA? GSM? Analog???

calvoiper
join:2003-03-31
Belvedere Tiburon, CA

calvoiper

Member

Re: cell "towers" inside cabin

Correctomundo, cowspotter.

FWIW: The FCC rule mod to "allow" cell use on airplanes only covers this "internal to the plane" usage. Under the modified rule, straight use to a land based tower is still a no-no.

Calvoiper

insomniac84
join:2002-01-03
Schererville, IN

insomniac84

Member

Will they block VPN?

If they blocked business users from connecting to a vpn for security and to access business stuff, they they won't want to use the service. But if they allow you to VPN, then you could just set up a vpn server on your home pc and get around all their blocks.
JPCass
join:2001-01-23
Denver, CO

JPCass

Member

Re: Will they block VPN?

Good point, but "just set up a vpn server" is beyond most home users.

I would think the carriers wouldn't want to block business users from VPN, but that ultimately enough users - particularly business users - would manage to get set up to use VOIP that it would become a problem. It also seems to me that heavy users downloading large files would eventually be an issue. Isn't it logical that ultimately carriers would want to get set up to charge for bandwidth used, at a rate that would discourage VOIP, and be more friendly to people who wanted to stay logged on for the whole flight but not actually do anything bandwidth intensive?

aitech
Guru. Kneel
join:2000-12-19
Boston, MA

aitech

Member

Re: Will they block VPN?

Block VPN? How do you suppose they do that?

Simply ssh tunnel all your traffic through port 80 to a server/your home machine, etc. They can't tell it's not http traffic. Then go out from there...

Also the whole cell phone in the air thing has always made we wonder how those people on Sept 11 managed to make a bunch of phone calls and make some that lasted minutes long w/o dropping out while flying around at high speeds... I don't think I ever saw an explanation for that..??
DustinR
join:2001-12-03
Ottawa, IL

DustinR

Member

If people can freaking use cellphones in air

If people can use cellphones while flying, then we should be able to smoke cigs. Otherwise I might have to shove their cell down their throat.

AxelVD
@sjm.com

AxelVD

Anon

Use a proxy...

If you have broadband at home, set yourself up as a proxy. Make all the skype calls you want, through your proxy ofcourse...