Inflight Internet and mobile services soon?

[SilverChris]

This sounds interesting. I got an email from SQ about this:

Dear Mr SilverChris


Singapore Airlines would like to invite you to participate in an online survey about your attitudes towards inflight mobile and Internet services, which we are planning to introduce from May 2011. This survey is part of our dedication to continuously listen to our customers and improve our products and services.

Kindly note that this survey will be conducted in the English language and it will take about 15 minutes to complete.

If you wish to participate, please click*here.

We would appreciate if you could complete this survey by 28 February 2011.


We hope you will find this survey interesting. Thank you for your time and valuable feedback.


Yours Sincerely,



Stanley Ng
Senior Manager Inflight Entertainment

Please click here to view the Privacy Statement. Please do not reply to this e-mail. Messages sent to this address cannot be answered. To unsubscribe, please click here*© 2011 Singapore Airlines. Singapore Co. Reg. No. 197200078R.

[inix]

I did the survey. They mentioned something about paying S$26 for a data cap of around 30MB if I'm not wrong, which to me, is basically too much money for too little data.

I would pay $26 for a long haul flight for 500mb to 1Gb of data. But anything lesser than that, how to surf?

[mr_botak]

I just completed it - I implored them not not allow mobile service. The data caps were as above - very expensive for little data. I wouldn't pay anything for the service, I have no desire to be connected all the time, and actually enjoy being cut off.

[inix]

My choice was to disallow voice calls. But I think SMS does serves a purpose and could be allowed. If there was a real emergency, the option to use the in-flight satellite phone is always there.

Anyway, I was doing some testing of my own just now. Just opening 2-3 websites and doing tabulation and within a short span of 15 minutes (no downloading), I have already exceeded 30MB. For them to propose 20MB is simply crazy

[feb01mel]

I also discourage the use of mobile phone voice services in this survey, but to me sending SMS is fine.

[Pinkfloyd]

SMS is fine as long as pax are made to switch their phones to silent mode.

[cscs1956]

I also discourage the use of mobile phone voice services in this survey, but to me sending SMS is fine.

Technically, once SMS/phone is allow. There is no way to stop people from making voice call or making sure phone user put their phone in slient mode.

[coffeeblack]

Am pretty much the same as all of you guys, was stunned at the high price for such a LOW amount of data. Shouldn't they be testing the waters with the service before setting the data cap? Who actually knows how much data they're using?

And I was adamantly against the Phone service, and implored them to block Skype calls. Texts were OK in my book.

[SQflyergirl]

These data caps are actually quite alright if you're after light connectivity on a smartphone or tablet pc.

If you're planning to watch youtube and download torrents that's another thing altogether.

[ozdude]

These data caps are actually quite alright if you're after light connectivity on a smartphone or tablet pc.

If you're planning to watch youtube and download torrents that's another thing altogether.

Well, not so sure about that. I don't know exactly how much data is on a page, but I am sure there would be close to 500kb to 1MB per page, esp if you are surfing newspapers etc with pics, ads, auto reloading etc. I reckon you'd easily get to 30mb, especially if you are on a long haul, or even medium haul.

[SQflyergirl]

Well, not so sure about that. I don't know exactly how much data is on a page, but I am sure there would be close to 500kb to 1MB per page, esp if you are surfing newspapers etc with pics, ads, auto reloading etc. I reckon you'd easily get to 30mb, especially if you are on a long haul, or even medium haul.

Well you're right about content. But from a data point of view I have an iPhone4 with a 2gb package per month. Have never breached the 300mb mark all this time. So it really is dependent on what you're surfing. If you plan to just use say whatsapp and a bit of facebook and msn messenger I think 30mb is quite sufficient.

[milehighj]

Well you're right about content. But from a data point of view I have an iPhone4 with a 2gb package per month. Have never breached the 300mb mark all this time. So it really is dependent on what you're surfing. If you plan to just use say whatsapp and a bit of facebook and msn messenger I think 30mb is quite sufficient.

Then again if one were to read a photo TR by Dent@SUB on SQT, that would probably blow the limit right out of the water.

[inix]

Well you're right about content. But from a data point of view I have an iPhone4 with a 2gb package per month. Have never breached the 300mb mark all this time. So it really is dependent on what you're surfing. If you plan to just use say whatsapp and a bit of facebook and msn messenger I think 30mb is quite sufficient.

The key is the content. Whatsapp, FB and MSN would be fine. Even a Blackberry with plenty of pushmail would be fine I reckon, but other normal web surfing would burst it pretty quickly.

Even someone who is trying to do their mails on the laptops would burst it very quickly. All you need to do is to forget to check your mail prior to boarding, or 1 decently large attachment, and there goes your 30MB

[Logan^]

I completed this, I can see a benefit to being able to send sms for example if your flight is delayed while your in the air for whatever reason then you can let people know if your meeting family/friends etc.

I said allowing voicecalls was a big no, as was mentioned early, I enjoy being cut off etc. 26mb of data is pathetic, needs to be bigger. One off fee for long haul flights for example would be better imo.

[SQflyergirl]

Bird in the tree told me this:

No GSM voice calls for now.

A few different net packages - including a light Webbased e-mail only package.

System used will be one that many airlines already use