broadband news

Broadband takes to the skies above Las Vegas

Broadband technology is moving fast. So fast, the next step could be 500mph broadband at 30,000 feet.

An in-flight broadband system has been created which will allow airline passengers to surf broadband while on board commercial aircraft.

BBC reporter, Rory Cellan-Jones, was invited to trial the new broadband technology in America. His blog documents the twilight ascent to several thousand feet, twenty miles outside Las Vegas in a 1952 flying boat – the plane that the company testing the airborne broadband, Row 44, chose for the pilot scheme.

The two main purposes for Mr Cellan-Jones were to firstly go live to BBC World, and secondly to try a video call via broadband.

Going live to BBC World was a success, albeit briefly. London saw their BBC reporter live, before, he explains, “a software glitch froze the picture”.

The broadband Skype call worked considerably better – “Wonder of wonders, it worked,” writes Cellan-Jones. Aside from the roaring noise of the unpressurised air cabin drowning out the conversation, that is. “First, we resorted to holding up pieces of paper to our webcams, then we started Twittering to each other. It was all rather eccentric but hugely satisfying.”

Further into his blog he raised the flip side of the benefits of broadband. “Do we really want to see the internet reach every corner of our lives?” The chances are that we might, as he points out: “The internet is getting airborne. I’m afraid it looks to me as if you won’t have a choice.

12/01/2009
Author: CompareBroadbandUK staff writer

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