节目资讯
刊物:科技前沿
日期:2009-01-15
难易度:High
关键字:turbulent, justifiable, in tandem, hotspot, contin
Advanced Studio Classroom is on the air.
It’s time to get back on our flight now with our Internet takeoff.
And we’re talking about whether we should be having the Internet on planes, so
stay tuned for our TECHNOLOGY article.
Well, thanks for coming back for our article on pages 24 and 25.
This is Doris Brougham, who likes flying on planes, but I don’t like to fly on
them as much as I used to.
And Steve, what about you?
I’m with you, Doris.
You know, growing up it was a lot of fun.
You could see a lot of fun things down there on the earth, but it’s kind of
taxing now; it’s tiring.
A little boring, right?
Yeah.
Yeah. Well, if you get your Internet on them, that... would that make it better?
I think what would make it really nice is if I could bring my guitar on board
and... and play some music.
Oh, we’re gonna have to have a guitar-free zone for the rest of us, so...
Well, and we’re also glad to have Howie, our technical... I don’t know if he’s
an expert.
Are you an expert? Probably, Howie.
In some things, I’m an expert. Uh, this, maybe not.
But I’ll do my best to share my knowledge with everybody.
You know experts anyway. That’s good.
Well, thanks for coming along today as we talk about this article on pages 24
and 25.
In-flight Internet starts out. I mean, it takes off.
Doesn’t it?
It takes off; it’s becoming very, very popular. A lot of people, of course, are
demanding this.
They want to get on the Internet while they’re flying; they want to do business;
they want to talk to people.
So it’s become very, very popular.
Well, I’m surprised that they just name one company, Aircell.
You know, Howie, there must be lots of companies that are trying to do this,
aren’t there?
I think so. But according to the article, and we talked about this yesterday,
Aircell has an exclusive license from the... FCC.
But, yeah, I would think that in... from now and into the future,
many, many companies are... are gonna want to get into this because they’re
gonna want to make money.
Yeah, can you imagine how many companies were trying to get that exclusive
license from the FCC?
So, it is mind-boggling that this one company, Aircell, got the license.
It is very interesting.
You wonder how come they got it over United Airlines or some of the other
American... Continental, and some of the other American ones, right?
So I think whoever got that order probably got a big promotion.
Do you think so?
Yeah, I think it was a huge, huge thing for them.
It was a milestone for the company.
Yeah, it was. It really was.
Well, it was a transformative step in many ways and... and it’s still kind of
mind-boggling for most of us.
Yeah, I still can’t believe it,
because I remember two, three years ago when I flew over to Asia, I was still
amazed, wow, I can watch all these movies on... on an airplane.
But now you can browse the web.
So it’s amlost...
You can pretty much... It’s almost like being at home.
There’s nothing that you can’t do on an airplane seat now.
Except you can’t stretch out all the way usually.
Is that right, Steve?
Oh, Doris, don’t get me started.
You need a little more space on those airplanes, right? You know.
But they are paving the way for making it more interesting for people because
the flights are so long.
And they’re trying to make some of the flights shorter by different things or
making the planes different.
But it still takes a long time to go from east to west, doesn’t it?
Oh, man. It takes a long time.
And as I asked you before, listeners, if any of you have traveled over the
Pacific or over the Atlantic it can get pretty, pretty boring.
So I can see why some people would want to bring their laptop onto the plane.
Well, and in Asia a lot of people go down to places like Australia and New
Zealand, too.
And when I think of a long flight, you know, I think of something over eight
hours.
What about you, Howie?
I’ve flown from America to Europe, and Europe to here, so over eight hours is...
I’m starting to get to that point where, OK, I want to get out of this airplane
so I can stretch.
Yeah, me too.
But I can do about eight hours, you know, have a meal, you sleep a little bit.
OK, it’s time to get off.
Uh-oh, only eight hours.
What about you, Steve?
I think anything over three hours and I’m done.
Well, Steve, don’t ever go to Brazil.
I had to go to Germany once from Brazil, and I’m telling you, I don’t know how
many... 32 hours or something, that was just too much.
Oh, my goodness.
Thirty-two hours?
Of flying.
It’s a long ways.
Was it direct?
Well, kind of direct. I mean you had to, yeah, get off one plane and another and
didn’t stop in between. It was just...
Wow.
It was like... you know, one day you get from Brazil to America and then America
to Germany.
It’s... it’s quite far.
Wow.
And I understand even from Southeast Asia, where we are, to place like Australia
or New Zealand, that’s a long flight.
That’s not very long, for six hours?
Six hours? Well...
Depending... depending on where in Australia.
If you go to Perth, which is more in the West, it’s a little bit shorter.
But I think if you fly to Sydney, it’s a little bit longer.
Well, if you go to Brisbane, it’s not bad.
OK.
Anyway, it’s still not like going over to L.A., right?
Right.
So the thing is a lot of people do like to have the Internet.
Yesterday on page 24 we did talk about the fact that they said they’re doing
some market research,
and... and of course this research changes because every time you ask people,
they change their mind.
But most people say, ”Well, OK. If it’s short, it’s... it’s OK.”.
But when it’s a longer flight, they need it more because they get too bored.
I guess they probably need the Internet more if they’re on a 13-hour flight, do
you think?
Yeah.
And yesterday I was talking about it from my perspective thinking that if I was
on a longer flight, I wouldn’t want the Internet,
because I wouldn’t want to be disturbed by people talking over the...
Well, if they could talk, I wouldn’t want to be disturbed by that or their
screen.
But they didn’t research you though.
That was...
They didn’t ask me.
I was waiting for their phone call.
Right.
I’d like to remind our listeners that a lot of this research and these rules,
they’re applying to flights within the US.
Because if you go to Europe or other parts of the world, they may allow you to
do this stuff.
They may allow you to talk on an airplane with a cell phone, of course, or
you... or they may have less rules when you’re browsing the web.
I’ve never been on a plane yet where you can use your cell phone, but maybe you
can.
I don’t know. Have you ever heard about that?
I have not.
But I... again, this article alludes to it, and I have done some small research
before where European flights,
the governments are allowing these air companies to do just that, to have cell
phones on the planes.
In the Middle East as well.
Oh, yeah.
Well, they can do whatever they want over there, I guess. But we can’t do that
here.
OK. Well, let’s look at page 25 today.
And what are we going to be talking about today as we talk about expanding this
big market?
Talking about how these Wi-Fi services, how they work and how they’re affecting,
I guess, the economy and if it’s a good solution.
I think this is a good time of the year to talk about this because so many
people travel now over the Christmas holidays.
Then the regular New Year, the Chinese New Year.
Wow, what a time for the airplane industry.
They must be really having all their flights full these days.
Not only that, but this is the time where they jack up their prices.
Oh, I know.
Oh, yeah.
That’s right.
Oh, man.
They do because just the... anytime just for the holidays, that’s when they can
make a little extra, isn’t it?
Yeah, I think it’s about one... one and a half, almost two times more expensive.
It should be illegal if you ask me.
You know, well, I think we’ll make another whole article on that sometime,
Steve.
You can write it for us, right?
But we’re talking about expanding the market here about Aircell’s in-flight
Wi-Fi service, and they call it what? Gogo.
Gogo. You Gogo. That sounds like a dance... dancing place for me.
The gogo. Yeah, that is an old dance.
Yeah.
But, you know, it costs 12.95.
That’s not bad.
Let’s find out more about it.
In fact, I think Brian is going to read the first section for us.
Expanding the market.
Aircell’s in-flight Wi-Fi service is called Gogo and costs $12.95 for flights
over three hours.
American Airlines has the system installed on just 15 flights for now,
all of which fly coast-to-coast routes.
Doug Backelin, the carrier’s manager of in-flight communications and technology,
said the company [would] evaluate customer feedback over three to six months
before deciding whether to expand Gogo across its domestic fleet.
”It’s a turbulent time for the airlines, with oil prices such as they are,”
Backelin said.
”But we’ve been working on this for years...
even with the current price of oil, we think it’s going to be very economically
justifiable solution.”.
The Aircell system that turns airplanes into moving Wi-Fi hotspots weighs about
150 pounds, which Backelin said was ”not extravagant.”.
Three antennas on the aircraft search for the best signal from 92 ground-based
towers in the continental U.S.
Aircell built about 10 of these towers and leases the rest.
Meanwhile, back on the plane, passengers can access the wireless network with
their laptops, BlackBerrys and personal data assistants.
Well, it’s a good time and a bad time to expand the market.
The season is good for travel.
But with the changing things in oil prices, political situation, in some ways,
that’s not so good.
So it’s kind of a turbulent time.
But the word ”turbulent” that we find over here on page 25 reminds me of every
time I’m gonna eat something in the airline,
they say there’s turbulence and then all of the food starts popping around on my
tray.
So ”turbulent” is a good word to do with airplanes.
Ooh, when you have turbulence on the plane, the plane is shaking and it’s
moving, and it feels like...
Well, sometimes, to me, it feels like it’s going to fall out of the sky.
Some people get sick if the turbulence is too heavy and so nobody likes
turbulence.
When there’s a little sign that comes on, ”Fasten your seatbelt. We’re having
some turbulence,” right?
So people had better fasten their seatbelt.
Economically right now, it’s a turbulent time for the airlines.
That’s right. And I... Just like yesterday with the title ”In-flight Internet
Takes Off,” this is also a play on words,
because on an airplane you have turbulence,
and it’s a turbulent time, meaning that there’s a lot of irregular things,
there’s a lot of changes in the economic times right now.
And because oil prices are so high right now,
fuel prices are going up and now they’re charging you for even checking in a bag
now.
If you want an extra bag, that costs even more money.
So it’s... and in one way, you know, they’re laying off workers and people so
they don’t have as much staff as they used to.
And yet there’s a lot of people traveling, so it seems to me that some of these
airline staff must really be working overtime.
Do you thinks so, Steve?
Yeah, I think they’re doing all that they can to try to squeeze as much money
out of the system so that they can maintain themselves.
But apparently, this man thinks that this - we’re talking about Internet on
airplanes - is a good solution to bring more money into these companies.
Well, then they charge like $12.95 for this system. Well, it’s justifiable.
In other words, it doesn’t cost that much.
You’re paying for something, but you’re getting something.
So they think it’s OK to charge that. That’s not a high of rate, either, is it?
Right. And I think as Howie said before, that’s actually quite cheap compared to
other places like hotels.
So I wouldn’t mind seeing that price go up even further if it meant that these
airlines could remain afloat.
But if you want to use it yourself, you wouldn’t want it to go up, Steve.
Right.
Yeah, I’m not desperate enough to pay $13 for three hours.
I mean, maybe if you’re a businessperson, that’s nothing.
But, I’m thinking if you’re a businessperson, you’re willing to even pay $50 for
three hours.
Mmhm.
Maybe. But, you know, like they used to, a long time ago, have movies that...
Like in business class, they were free, but if you wanted to watch them, you had
to pay in the Y class or something like that, you know.
And I... If I have to pay for it, just forget it. I don’t really need it that
badly.
I know. Like the headphones, too.
Yeah.
You have to pay for your headphones to watch a movie.
Forget it.
I’m not gonna do that.
But if they give me three or four more inches, Doris...
You might pay for that.
I will pay whatever they want... I’ll pay $50 for that.
Yep, that’s true. I agree with that part of it. So you’ll pay for something you
really need.
Yep.
The other things, we might not need them.
But, you know, there’s a very nice diagram drawing here on page 25 that shows
how the airplane high-speed wireless Internet access works.
So I hope you all have that, because it really is much easier than trying to
talk about it.
But the second paragraph here on page 25 tells us a little bit about this Wi-Fi
hot spots and what it’s like, and the signals on the ground.
You can see the signals on the ground in this picture.
Maybe Howie, you can explain that paragraph a little bit, starting on line 21.
Sure.
It says here that the Aircell system that turns airplanes into moving Wi-Fi
hotspots weighs about a 150 pounds.
Now, the word hotspot.
You might have heard of it if you go to a cafe.
There are a lot of cafes right now like Starbucks. They have Wi-Fi hotspots..
You can bring your laptop and you can stat browsing the web there.
So according to this article, this device, when they put it on your plane, it
makes the whole plane into a hotspot.
So it’s a one wireless transmitter and you can...
If you have a laptop or some kind of PDA or BlackBerry, you can browse the web
through it.
Hmm.
But they have to have something to receive it, so the picture just shows some of
these antennas that are around.
They have to go around and, I guess, to put those on the ground someplace...
Mmhm.
And build them up - It’s kind of a tower, right?
Right. And the receiver that’s on the plane itself weighs 150 pounds, which is
not too extravagant or too heavy, said Backelin.
So, it doesn’t add too much weight to the plane, so it’s economically feasible.
They’re gonna make some money on this.
And then if we read on, it says that device has three antennas.
And then, that device is gonna search for the best signal from 92 ground-based
towers on the continental U.S.
Wow, just think of that. So, 92, and yet... that’s not very many when you think
about the size of America, of course.
The continental U.S. means that we don’t include Hawaii, right.
Or Alaska.
Or Alaskan, right.
So, they built about 10 of those towers, it says.
And they lease the rest of them that they don’t use.
So, I don’t know, maybe some regular stations use the rest of them, I don’t
know.
A lot of, I guess, companies now use it to broadcast maybe for satellite radio,
maybe television, maybe even cell phones...
So, it probably has a lot of uses.
Maybe they share them.
That’s right.
If that’s possible.
Hmm.
So I guess that... they can access their wireless network on their laptops and
so forth.
And some people like to do their e-mail and...
But, you know, I kind of like to get away from that a llittle bit myself.
I do too. I like to... I kind of go on to a semi-comatose state myself, Doris.
I like to crawl up and just be in semi-consciousness and get to my destination.
Or if I’m up and awake, I like to read a book, just be really quiet, relaxed.
It’s time to relax.
If you had your guitar there, Steve, I think you’d play it though.
I would.
And I hope that would help other people relax.
Well, I don’t know about that part. It depends on what you play...
But, you know, it is interesting to have...
Next thing they’ll be having music on planes for people to sing along or
something...
You know, you could have a little of free time there, right?
I agree.
Right.
So it’s gonna be interesting to see what happens on this. And there’s a lot of
things here...
Are there any words you think we need to explain or any other ideas... so far?
I underlined the word ”lease” on line 27.
And lease, basically, is a contract for something.
So when you rent it out to somebody, it’s a contract that you can see and sign.
So it says here that Aircell built about 10 of these towers and it leases the
rest, so it rents it out.
People... A company would sign a contract and it shows that they have leased or
rented these other towers.
Right. A lot of people have leases on their apartments.
You can pay this rent for the next two years or five years.
Then they won’t raise the rent during that time.
But at the end of that lease, then you can stay longer but you sign a new one,
and maybe you have to pay more money.
So people try to not have to pay every year and negotiate with the landlord.
That’s right.
So they’d like to get a lease, right?
And you can lease a car also. Some people, instead of buying a car, they like to
lease a car,
which is basically renting it for a certain amount of time.
It has insurance and everything on it, right?
Mmhm.
OK.
Well, the future of the in-flight Internet, it’s gonna be pretty interesting.
We can’t say exactly, but we see the direction it’s taking off for.
We see that as the way has been paved.
So let’s read the last part of our article: The future of in-flightInternet.