I know, I’m slow in responding to RyanAirs plans to allow people to use Mobiles on planes. However as I had not been on a flight recently on Ryanair I did not want to comment on the airline without having “experienced” their service as it is today. I flew from Stansted to Milan for a business trip, and flew Ryanair ONLY because their flight times allowed me to do a trip in 3 days that would have took 4 on other carriers. I think next time I’ll take the longer option.

On the subject of their use of mobiles - It will make an already annoying experience almost unbearable. I mean their flights already have the most uncomfortable, unreclineable seats possible, and with no seat back storage - resulting in people getting up/down to get things out of overhead baggage rather a lot. Then there is the inane music greeting you as you board (until push back) and upon landing. I feel so sorry for the flight attendants having their ears assaulted by this music every day. The adverts for scratch cards on the PA system also were another in-flight annoyance(which somehow even could be overheard over my Shure noise isolating earphones!). On my outbound flight they also put on the hot blowers until the cabin doors shut, seemingly to dehydrate their passengers in order that water and drink sales could be increased! The arrival of mobile phones would no doubt mean some Ryanair customers (not being able to afford to make a call) would sit on the plane and play ring tones to each other all flight no doubt (this WAS the experience in the departure lounge prior to flight).

Post this trip I’ve already said to work I will only fly Ryanair in the event no other carrier has a direct flight to the airport in question, and where an alternative will add 6+ hours in travel time. If mobiles are introduced on planes, I think I’ll just put up with the extra travel time.

So my message to the leader of Ryanair, is you risk my business (and probably many business travellers) if you continue with this crazy plan to keep annoying your passengers.

On a side note, I do see that JetBlue are intruducing free wifi Broadband on their planes. Now if only a UK low cost carrier (or even scheduled, this WOULD be a differentiator) would introduce similar on their planes. This article has a great writeup on the service. I’d be happy if one of the European providers even had live TV, or AVOD on within-european services (with a decent route network).

Do you want wifi on planes? And TV?

I friend I met up with last week does not have Broadband at home via DSL or Cable. Nor do they use Wifi. They actually use a Vodafone 3G Datacard, providing 3Gig of data a month for a monthly fee.

All the UK carriers now I believe are doing some form of 3G datacard - but finally with decent usage limits (1 Gig being a minimal usable level per month) - and all for varying fees. The above example, in my friend, pays £45-50 a month for her 3G of data. But as she says, “I can use it anywhere” - but she says she will move to a cheaper provider when contract is up. Three now are I see doing same amount of data for £15 a month if tied to a 18 month contract and T-mobile do the same deal also I believe(but with free wifi access in their hotspots bundled). Which brings me to the point of this article:

If you can get 3Gig of data for £15 a month, providing 3Gig of data at up to 2.8Mbit a sec of bandwidth (assuming HSDPA) - why would you use a public hotspot in say Starbucks (which is probably uplinked to the net at a very similar speed)?

More to the point - you can use that data on the train, in places other than the hotspot - using it literally everywhere. The friend in question chatted to me using MSN - in a cab on the way to Heathrow - in a video call for example - impossible with Wifi.. and very impressive.

I also see that Three are even doing pay as you go data (at 10 pounds for the use of 1Gigabyte for 30 daysif the advert in todays paper is to be believed). The use of even 2-3 hours of wifi in many coffee shops would easily pay for 1 gig of data to be used in many coffee shops over the entire country. And with pay and go, theres no need to even be contracted, so this service could even be used by a foreign visitor…

Thus I believe that the days of coffee shops charging expensive rates for broadband access via wifi will soon be over (well assuming the coffee shop isn’t in underground with no signal).

This of course also applies to overcharging hotel chains - in Europe last year I got charged > £15 for 24 hours Internet access (and only for one device!) - now if I could get a pay-and-go sim and a hsdpa modem/3g card for the country being visited (or just take an unlocked one), why would I pay those prices?

Of course all this could lead to coffee shops and Hotels lead lining / filtering to stop 3g signal entering their premises…

Is it me or is Free Hotel Wifi the most useful thing since Sliced bread?

I stayed in the most pleasent country last week for 6 days - Sweden, Stockholm in particular.    Top marks to the Scandic Anglias in Stockholm for providing free wifi as a standard feature (and the speed was excellent also).

Avilable both in room, and in the bar - no hassle, username/password handed out upon checkin, and great signal throughout.

Made my trip a boon - especially when using the Slingbox at home I could avoid all the naff TV they have there (though it was rare I made it to the room early enough to use it).

Come on other hoteliers, make free-wifi a standard item - its as much a business essential today as the soaps in the bathroom..

On a side note, Stockholm seems to have very advanced comms, internet performance was overall excellent - maybe due to the city wide fibre network delivering FTTH (as I understand it from the staff there anyhow)….