China Set to Embrace In-flight Wi-Fi That Is Faster Than U.S. ? M.I.C. ...

By Maggie Hui, posted Feb 3, 2012 at 9:57 AM, 8 views,

China Set to Embrace In-flight Wi-Fi That Is Faster Than U.S.

Last November, we have reported Air China became the first Chinese airlines offering wireless network on flights. However, Chinese passengers will only be able to use the service to access the craft?s intranet network, allowing them to play games and shop online but not to surf the World Wide Web. With the country?s ambition to tap the sky-high Wi-Fi market, Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) is testing the land to air broadband communications system, allow passengers to access the real Internet using wi-fi while flying ?

Huawei, the nation number one networking and telecommunications equipment supplier, has took part in the developing of the new system. The communication system will install multiple ground bases along airline routes and the broadband data will be sent to passing aircraft at an expected speed of 30Mbps. The surfing experience will be almost the same as that on the ground. Huawei said they still need to wait for the final test result to see the actual speed, but it is already faster than the U.S. in-fight Wi-Fi which is using 10Mbps only. On the other hand, CAAC is negotiating with China Mobile and some other telecommunication suppliers for future co-operation, hoping to give the Chinese passengers a better inexpensive experience.

Intranet network cannot allow passenger to access instant messenger and social network.

As the system still in the testing stage, the new service is scheduled to put it to commercial use by the end of 2012. But according to the local media report, the Chinese aviation authorities have yet to recognize the legitimacy of in-flight Wi-Fi Internet or intranet, and the central government has yet to set up any rules on the new aviation trend. This means both airlines and the aviation bureau have nothing to resort to while dealing with key issues, such as the installation of Wi-Fi devices and pricing model.

SOURCE: CNN GO via BJnews (in Chinese)

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TAGS: China Tech, flight, intranet, WiFi

Source: http://micgadget.com/21622/china-set-to-embrace-in-flight-wi-fi-that-is-faster-than-u-s/

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