In flight wifi

[Sam Rutherford]

Very interested in feedback from anyone who has tried this (ie roaming dongle) in the 7000-10000ft cruise.


Also reasons/advice as to why this shouldn't be done (if there are reasons).


Thought it would be great to have for the passengers if easy and reliable (and indeed that may be the problem!).


Fly safe, Sam.

[srobarts]

I think you will find the cellular antenna on the ground are optimised to transmit/receive in a horizontal plane so the signal going skywards will be limited. You may also find that because cell sizes are relatively small if you do get a signal it will be being handed over from cell to cell at very regular intervals. Not sure the service providers will like that.

[Victorian]

Sam, assuming that you are referring to cellular data feeding wifi, It depends which country you are in. My observation is that across the flatlands of N Europe 1500' seems to be the limit. In the S of France, the Western US and throughout NZ you can get data at 10,000' within about 30 mi of habitation. Doubtless mountainous terrain is a factor.

With regard to airborne devices 'jamming up' the cell towers, they must daily be subjected to thousands of airline passengers who leave their devices on during flight, although they may only spend a few minutes in the critical height range. Our presence must be negligible compared with that.

[stevelup]

Iridium Go! (http://www.iridium.com/products/iridium-go.aspx)

It's 2400 baud though, so slower than 1980's dial-up!

[Above The Clouds]

We have a satcom system onboard with Wifi / Lan it is good enough to download a movie in approx 20 mins, has no problem with emails etc. but and a big but, it is $8-50 per minute for data.