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Technology Stocks : The *NEW* Frank Coluccio Technology Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LindyBill who wrote (32438)	1/13/2010 1:01:23 AM
From: Frank A. Coluccio	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 46821

Hm. Things mus really be rough for the airline industry. "But no one knows how viable the market for in-flight connectivity can be, given that many passengers, particularly younger ones, resist paying for a Wi-Fi connection. The airlines with Wi-Fi connections have been charging up to $12.95 a flight, depending on the length of the trip, to cover their costs." Do you suppose lavatories and overhead lights used for reading will be next to undergo such reviews? ------

To: LindyBill who wrote (32438)	1/13/2010 11:16:52 AM
From: Maurice Winn	1 Recommendation Respond to of 46821

How can they charge $100,000 to install a stupid little wifi system in an airliner? All they need is a teeny bit of electricity and a satellite antenna. Flying over the USA they could probably just hang an aerial to connect to Verizon or AT&T. Then they have a stupid pricing system = <The airlines with Wi-Fi connections have been charging up to $12.95 a flight, depending on the length of the trip, to cover their costs.> They should charge per megabyte. Also, they shouldn't charge to cover their costs, they should charge what the market will bear. It doesn't matter how much they spent to provide the service, the service is only worth a certain amount. If they charge a fixed price per flight, people will download movies and block the service for others. If they strangle the service by running it slowly, they'll reduce its value and their profits and the happiness of their customers, which is not normally considered to be a good idea in marketing circles. Heck, I could provide a wifi service myself. Just put a Verizon modem by the window and connect it to a Zenbu wifi router to turn the Verizon signal into wifi. It would cost about $400 per aircraft to do that - which is less than $100,000 per aircraft. Also, the service would be really popular and reservations would zoom because people like a good wifi system. Including glue to stick the router onto the ceiling and a wire to connect to some electricity, the total cost might be $1000. Mqurice

To: LindyBill who wrote (32438)	1/14/2010 11:59:33 AM
From: Rob S.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 46821

I rode on a flight from Seattle to Miami last month on American AL on which GoGo was offered for free. My observation was that about 20% took advantage and most of those used hand-held devices rather than laptops - ratio probably due to the low percentage of business travelers. I tend to agree with the statement that usage will be driven by mobile devices rather than laptops: users of phones seem more addicted to being always connected to messaging and web.