64kbps @ 40,000 ft.

jumpstop writes "The NYT Technology section reports that 64kbps is now available on business jets. Sure, you can read your email and surf the web, but can you blast away at Wolfenstein?"

spoiled

[theblacksun]

We're all spoiled now a days. I remember blasting away at quake I and II, Starcraft and wonderful games over an unstable 36.6 dialup. I still managed to win some despite the lag.

Re:Each or between us?

[jsled]

Seriously, though: what happens when the Outlook-constrained CEO next to me opens up his VPN and grabs his inbox, with the mind-bendingly-over-large PowerPoint attachment and video clips and copies of websites that the employees mail around [instead of sending just a pointer or link to].

My responsible limited-bandwidth network use will get lost in the noise. :(

Implementers of these technologies: please implement per-connection throttling.

The big question....

[andyring]

While this is all cool and good, if these satellites provide coverage pretty much anywhere for airplanes, couldn't us slashdotters figure out a way to acquire the laptop PC card and any antenna(s) needed to use this bandwidth at home? I obviously don't know how hard (if even possible) this would be, but hey, if nothing else, it sounds like there is potential here for good-quality wireless Internet for the masses back on good 'ol planet Earth. Maybe even a reasonable end to Internet for rural areas?

Re:Already approaching from the wrong direction

[interstellar_donkey]

I can see (and expect) power to your wi-fi WAP to be shutoff during takeoff-landing.

But, from what I understand, the frequencies used by the aircraft would not experience interfearence from the wi-fi network.

But this just made me think: I keep my 802.11b card in my laptop all the time, and when I fly, I usually pull my laptop out (typically out of bordom). I never really thought about it before, but I wonder if I'm breaking any laws/regulations by having that little thing on while in flight... and if so, are we going to start seing flight attendents asking people to pull their PC cards out?

Re:Flying first class with decent net connection

[Kasmiur]

Perhaps you could abuse the timestamp and sent emails to yourself from the future!