ALSO NOTED: United to offer in-flight WiFi; New Orleans uses WiFi for storm prep; and much more...

Tue, 04 Jul 2006 20:00:50 -0400

> United Airlines will begin to offer WiFi service on some of its flights. The airline is beginning to offer the service after Verizon Airfone said it would no longer offer in-flight phone service to United passengers after the end of the year. Report

Going WiFi
> New Orleans is getting ready for another wave of hurricanes--among other things, by rolling out WiFi networks. Report

> Loveland, CO is considering downtown WiFi service. Report

> Appleton, WI, Harry Houdini's birthplace, is also mulling turning parts of the city into hot zones. Report

> But here is an argument, accompanied by aerial photographs, of why making Silicon Valley into one large hot zone is not going to work: Too many obstacles, too much money to overcome them. Discussion

> Terrestrial Digital is showing four new WLAN antennas. The four antennas are different from each other, but all are 802.11b/g compliant and all operate in the 2.4 GHz band. Press release.

> The specifications of the 802.11n standard are yet to be agreed upon, but Linksys is already shipping pre-n devices to the Australian market. Report

> Some industry heavyweights--KPN Mobile, Orange, Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile International, Vodafone Group--have formed a nonprofit organization in the U.K., called Next Generation Mobile Networks, or NGMN. The group's goal is the deployment of 4G devices by 2010. NGMN Web site.

> If you want to know more about the emerging 4G technology, see this useful Cedric Paillard's article.

> Good news for EarthLink: Direct TV and AOL will sell EarthLink WiFi services to their customers. Report

And finally... There are always winners and losers. Consumers benefit from the spread of VoIP, but operators lose big on calling and roaming revenues. Study

United Airlines to offer in-flight WiFi

Tue, 07 Jun 2005 20:01:39 -0400

United Airlines said it would begin to offer in-flight WiFi service to its passengers. The service will begin next year. Early last week United and Verizon demonstrated wireless data could be transmitted from the air to the ground with no disruption to the plane's navigation systems. Two days later, the FAA gave the two companies permission to start installing the equipment in planes. The initial FAA approval is only for the same planes (B757-200) in which last week's test was conducted. The system will have to be tested in each of the models in United's flleet before getting FAA approval. The service is limited to US airspace.

The FCC is yet to auction off licenses for using frequencies necessary to transmit data between airplanes and the ground. Although Verizon is already using the frequencies for its seatback telephones, the company does not have broadband authorization, so United must wait for auction, expetced sometime in late fall or early winter. Lufthansa and Singapore Airlines, using Connexion by Boeing, are already offering WiFi connection to their passengers. Connexion, however, uses a different technology than Verizon, relying on satellites to connect to the Internet.

For more on United's WiFi plans:
- see Avery Johnson's Wall Street Journal report (sub. req.)

united airlines

ALSO NOTED: United to offer in-flight WiFi; New Orleans uses WiFi for storm prep; and much more...

United Airlines to offer in-flight WiFi