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United Will Offer Verizon Wi-Fi In-Flight |
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Written by Kory Mohr
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Monday, 06 June 2005 |
Amended from Wi-Fi Networking News:
Verizon tested out an air-to-ground system to the FAA’s satisfaction says the Wall Street Journal:
But the frequencies in question aren’t cleared for broadband use and
are up for auction for that purpose. The auction might happen this
fall. United has to clear each model of plane they fly to demonstrate
that the Wi-Fi and air-to-ground systems don’t cause aeronautical
system interference, although it’s pretty clear that Wi-Fi isn’t an
issue given how many laptops must already accidentally have Wi-Fi
signals shooting around on planes.
Speeds in use aren’t discussed, but the amount of bandwidth up for
auction is a total of 8 MHz which might be divided into a 2 MHz and 6
MHz band or two 4 MHz bands. You can’t take a 1:1 relationship from MHz
to Mbps, but it typically hasn’t been far different. Wi-Fi has a 20 MHz
stretch that delivers net throughput of about 20 Mbps; 1xEvDO uses 1.25
MHz for a peak download speed of about 1 Mbps, with 200 to 300 Kbps
more typical. |
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