A380 WIFI Trial Starts tomorrow (7th March 12)

[serfty]

I'll see if I can tap into a signal from 50C on Monday ...

 

[oliverd]

I flew LAX/SYD arriving on Monday morning this week and took advantage of the (free) trial. It included 100MB and a web page tracks usage against this quota. After I hit 100MB I was prompted for CC details, which I didn't do ad the pay-per-MB overage was expensive. From the email receipt I got - below - pricing will be around $40 / 100MB which seems reasonable. QF are asking for feedback on pricing. Performance was much better than I expected for a satellite connection - but didn't look like many people were using it.

(I was in J but the feedback form had all 4 classes listed - so I believe the trial and final product will be available across the whole aircraft)

Reference number: 16961
Airline: Qantas
Flight Number: QFA12
Departure/Destination: LAX to SYD

Date of purchase: 04 March 2012 GMT

Product purchased: 100 MB Internet OnAir
Access fee: promotion
Promotion code: 06h2Zlv
Discount amount: US $40.00

 

[trippin_the_rift]

Ah, I remember the days of connexion. $35, fast speeds with unlimited data.

oliverd, did you do a speedtest?

 

[Mal]

I'll see if I can tap into a signal from 50C on Monday ...

You'll need a promotional code - see if the CSS/CSM will give you one when (if) they turn up to say hello!

 

[oliverd]

oliverd, did you do a speedtest?

No!! That would have been a good idea
Didn't even think of it - had no idea wifi was being trialled so didn't think to run a speedtest.
Although with a 100MB cap not sure I'd want to use too much bandwidth sending test files.

From the speed of uploads it felt like a very slow broadband connect (256K-512K), but latency seemed pretty good.

 

[moa999]

The AusBT article said:

speed tests of 0.11MB/s download and 0.08MB/s upload
notably in that trial only a 35Mb limit.

Exclusive review: Qantas' A380 in-flight wifi Internet trials - Flights | hotels | frequent flyer | business class - Australian Business Traveller

 

[ajw373]

So let me get this straight - i pay $10k for a business class ticket to the US and then find that Qantas haven't sucked enough money out of me and they want to charge for internet access - they really are dropping into LCC land.

Do you have any idea how expensive satellite data is? It would be rough if they charged to stream from say an entertainment server on board, but from the internet do not have an issue what so ever, even if they did pay $10k for the ticket.

 

[wafliron]

The AusBT article said:

speed tests of 0.11MB/s download and 0.08MB/s upload
notably in that trial only a 35Mb limit.

Exclusive review: Qantas' A380 in-flight wifi Internet trials - Flights | hotels | frequent flyer | business class - Australian Business Traveller

I wonder if they can tell their bits from their bytes?

If it really is 0.11MB per second (0.11 MegaBytes per second / 0.88 Megabits per second) then that's really not all that slow for general web browsing - Telstra artificially capped all of our ADSL connections to 0.18 MegaBytes per seconds until a few years ago. If, on the other hand, it's actually 0.11Mbper second (0.11 Megabits per second) then that is pretty slow.

They also don't list latency figures, which is disappointing - latency has a far bigger impact on web browsing "user experience" than bandwidth does, unless your bandwidth is really low.

I'd love to see a speedtest.net result if somone doesn't mind burning through a bunch of their onboard data to run it...

 

[SeatBackForward]

I would love if you could configue the IFE through some onboard server using your own Wifi enabled device. It takes so long to select tracks/albums each time using the on screen options..

 

[Daver6]

I'd love to know the latency times. I wonder how practical it would be for Skype conversations?

 

[simongr]

I'd love to know the latency times. I wonder how practical it would be for Skype conversations?

This is a big fear for a lot of people that Skype might actually work/be allowed... Not personally bothered though.

With the advent of iMessage though you might get a lot of sms type sounds from some people - hmm might need to opt for a more interesting sms tone (currently on silent permanently)

 

[wafliron]

I'd love to know the latency times. I wonder how practical it would be for Skype conversations?

If it even works (due to lack of bandwidth - maybe audio only?) it's not going to be a fun experience. Minimum round-trip latency for satellite internet is about one second (and often significantly higher), and anything greater than ~200ms is enough to badly affect natural conversation. You'll also burn through your data allowance pretty damn fast unless in audio-only mode.

 

[SeatBackForward]

I'd love to know the latency times. I wonder how practical it would be for Skype conversations?

I've heard that Lufthanasa have specifically blocked out ports that allow VoIP type of access. I'm no expert on if/how that can be done, but I remember hearing it on a BBC report about inflight connectivity last year.

 

[Daver6]

I've heard that Lufthanasa have specifically blocked out ports that allow VoIP type of access. I'm no expert on if/how that can be done, but I remember hearing it on a BBC report about inflight connectivity last year.

Skype can tunnel through port 80 (standard port for web pages). Perhaps they just block UDP connections.

If you just used it for audio, it shouldn't burn through that much of your data allowance. Latency shouldn't be any worse than sat phones either.

 

[markis10]

I've heard that Lufthanasa have specifically blocked out ports that allow VoIP type of access. I'm no expert on if/how that can be done, but I remember hearing it on a BBC report about inflight connectivity last year.

Port blocking is old hat these days, specific packet blocking that's identified as Skype content would be more likely.

 

[wafliron]

Port blocking is old hat these days, specific packet blocking that's identified as Skype content would be more likely.

Encryption... or you could use a VPN from your laptop... or we're taking this way too far

 

[beardoc]

Encryption... or you could use a VPN from your laptop... or we're taking this way too far

I VPN from the services when staying at hotels and in the air (Wi-Fi inflight in the US). I would be surprised if they blocked VPNs inflight, but I suspect it might be like the US services - the service is unstable enough to not be able to use video/audio services such as Skype audio.

 

[AdMEL]

I wasn't aware of any airlines that offer inflight wi-fi free even for F or J pax.

On AA it won't work unless you're within 100 miles of the coast, not on 757's or 767's & not under 10,000 feet.

I thought my AA flight from SFO to JFK in August 2010 on either a 757 or 767 had wi-fi available. I didn't use it though, as I only had a phone (and not a great one at that! Nokia E71) and was trying to sleep.

EDIT: AA website actually notes wi-fi available on all 767 aircraft.

 

[Boyfromthebeach]

For those that want to do it apparently the app to use is Tango which does work apparently on some flights, similar to skype but with different system resources in use...

 

[jdlover23]

I wonder if they can tell their bits from their bytes?

If it really is 0.11MB per second (0.11 MegaBytes per second / 0.88 Megabits per second) then that's really not all that slow for general web browsing - Telstra artificially capped all of our ADSL connections to 0.18 MegaBytes per seconds until a few years ago. If, on the other hand, it's actually 0.11Mbper second (0.11 Megabits per second) then that is pretty slow.

They also don't list latency figures, which is disappointing - latency has a far bigger impact on web browsing "user experience" than bandwidth does, unless your bandwidth is really low.

I'd love to see a speedtest.net result if somone doesn't mind burning through a bunch of their onboard data to run it...

That was a speedtest.net result through my phone, the speedtest failed on my Mac as it had trouble locating the nearest server