The conventional wisdom has been that business fliers don't really care about airborne WiFi, and so the recent scramble by airlines to install in-flight wireless may be a waste of time.
But a recent study suggests exactly the opposite: that business travelers would change their travel plans considerably to be online in the air. The WiFi Alliance commissioned a study by Wakefield Research, as reported in The New York Times, and 76 percent of those surveyed said they would pick an airline based on WiFi. More than half would move a trip by a day to get on a WiFi-equipped plane.
Looking at the original press release, it was unclear whether the study touched on the no-no area of in-flight VoIP calls. Upon investigation, the Alliance did not ask about VoIP in the study, so we don't really know what those polled might have said.
My own informal poll via Twitter had a very small sample size (20 votes), but 45 percent said “Yes, it would be great” to send and receive VoIP calls on planes; 20 percent were not sure; and 25 percent answered, “No, and I don't want anyone else doing it either.”
Many airlines disable VoIP based on supposed safety concerns or the fear that other flyers would rather not listen to people yakking via PC or WiFi-enabled smartphones. But the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)has no ban on it, and some industry watchers, including Barbara Esbin of the Progress & Freedom Foundation, have argued that the airlines might not have the right to prohibit VoIP, since they are acting as broadband ISPs, and ISPs don't have the right to block services like Skype based on court rulings on "federal Internet policy.”
The oddball factor in thinking about airlines as broadband service providers is physical proximity on the planes. Flyers are sitting next to each other in a closed and already noisy environment, so the addition of telephone chatter may seem like an unwanted nuisance to many. But on a purely technological level, American Airlines' desire to block a VoIP call to my PC while in flight is no different from Comcast Corp. (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK) or Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) blocking peer-to-peer applications, or slowing down the routing of TCP/IP packets from some services while allowing others faster transmission seeds. This preferential treatment is contrary to the government's Internet policies.
It's clear that there is going to be a showdown in the skies as clever travelers, like my pal Andy Abramson, figure out ways to run around WiFi blockage of VoIP.
In Andy's case, he started a conversation with a friend who was traveling on American Airlines using SightSpeed, the video chat service. Aircell Inc. , the wireless service provider for American, cut them off after a few minutes, presumably by packet sniffing and explicitly blocking SightSpeed transmissions.
Andy responded by using Stuart Henshall's Phweet, a VoIP callback service that relies on Adobe Flash technology. This worked, because, as Andy points out, Aircell can't very well block all Flash activity just to block possible VoIP.
To reiterate: If Esbin is right, American Airlines and other airlines -- in their dual role as broadband ISPs -- might be running afoul of U.S. government Internet policies by blocking specific applications' traffic.
Who knows, the first airline to openly permit in-air VoIP calls might wind up with as big a windfall as JetBlue had for its recent All-You-Can-Jet promotion.
— Stowe Boyd is an expert on social tools and their impact on business, media, and society. He is based in San Francisco.
I really like the connectivity.When I fly Emirates, I leave my mobile phone switched on so that I am contactable. It makes me less cut off from the world, knowing my family can speak with me in emergencies.
Using the seatback to chatter was expensive -- and sometimes difficult as not every person had a phone in front of them. Paying $2 per minute on a call with a large connect fee was cost prohibitive. If all of a sudden, everyone can do VOIP at little to no cost, the game changes. Learning about personal information from the person next to me while I'm on a flight --- fights, business stuff, etc, doesn't really sound that interesting. Or relaxing.
This raises a great point. If airlines are acting as IPS then they shouldn't be able to limit or block certain sites or services. Normal ISPs aren't able to do this, and they shouldn't either.
My sentiments exactly, but it would appear that Stowe's more forgiving concerning this issue or he's a member of that annoyingly growing pct. of people who can't seem to turn off their connectivity!!...
That's okay, when they're around me -- they learn real fast it's not acceptable.
Auntie Nono - I inderstand that feeling, but it may be a/ something we have to live with, like cell phones in buses, and b/ the airlines already have offered in-flight telephone, but it has been probibitly expensive. It would be hard for them to make a case that 'it's ok to use our AirFone service because so few people can afford it, but cheap VoIP will be blocked.' Um, that just not going to fly.
I guess I am one of the ones who don't care who has juristriction over airplane WiFi & VoIP. I can't stand it when people are talking on their cell phones right next to me. I don't fly very often, so hopefully I wont be too impacted by this, but I agree with the sentiment that it should not be allowed on planes. And if you are sitting next to me talking, I may start talking to myself very loudly in an effort to drown you out...or perhaps I will just pretend you are talking to me and start conversing with you.
There is no NEED for people to be connected 24/7. It is just a matter of convenience. Whether it is a right or not, I believe we need to put into practice standards respecting other people's personal space. If you can't be taking up my physical space on a plane by infringing upon my seat, then you had best not infringe upon my "ear"space either. Maybe I want to nap. Or veg. Or just not listen to your self important babble. Or your goo goo talk with your girlfriend. Or your threats to your naughty kids. Do that in your own space. Get out of mine.!
That last sentece really confused me. What I understood is that a hotel can block me from using VoIP in my room if they offer the internet as a complementary service but if I have to pay for it, then they can't?
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The Web is widely discussed as a revolutionary technological innovation, but there seems to be no generally accepted approach to trying to quantify its impact. To put it in simple (perhaps overly simple) terms, we know the Web has a value, but how much is it worth?
I suspect that most people who stumble across this post -- or, in fact, this series of posts at the ThinkerNet blog -- will be people who have not heard of me before, met me, or read any of my writing. So this reminds me of that uncomfortable moment at a cocktail party or in a business meeting where someone turns to you and says, “So... What’s your background?”
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