More Bad News About Air China’s In-Flight Intranet: No Phones Allowed

via Air China

Last week we told you that Air China was planning to introduce wireless intranet service to some of its flights. The test service was supposed to begin last Friday, but according to a new article on Sina Tech it will now begin on Tuesday instead. It also reveals that mobile phones with wifi won’t be allowed to access the intranet. Gee, this just keeps getting better…

As reported last week, the Air China wireless service will allow users to connect only with a server in the cabin, not with the actual internet. Laptops and tablets should be able to connect, but phones can’t, although iPhones will be allowed to connect via wifi if their SIM cards have been removed.

This is, Air China is happy to announce, the world’s first airline LAN network, in large part because it had apparently not occurred to any of those silly airlines with real internet that that’s not what consumers really want. A spokesman told Sina Tech:

Foreign airlines have mostly just been thinking about air-to-ground communication, and none of them have created dedicated internal LAN networks. But we did an investigation, and as far as most travelers are concerned, connecting to the internet on a flight definitely isn’t travelers’ first choice, what’s more important to them is passing the time on their flight via exciting activities.

We can’t help but think that surfing the actual internet might have been an exciting activity to help passengers while their time away, but what do we know?

So what will be featured on the wifi LAN that mobile phones can’t access? “Basic entertainment, such as listening to songs and playing games are features we already have on planes,” said a spokesman, “but wifi users can listen to newer songs and have a wider range of choice.”

Users will also be able to use the intranet to chat, but only with other passengers on the same flight. Of course, users can also use the wifi to shop, but only for the same skymall crap they can already shop for now, though the system will allow them to place orders “online.” And of course, they plan to add duty-free items to the intranet as well once the system is rolled onto international flights (for the moment, it’s being tested on the Beijing-Chengdu domestic line).

To summarize, then: it’s wifi intranet that allows passengers mostly just to do the same things they could already do on planes (play games, listen to music, buy weird crap, order drinks) along with some things no one wants to do on planes (chat with the strangers you’re not already forced to chat with because they’re sitting next to you). And, oh yeah, your phone — that portable, convenient-to-fly-with wifi device — won’t work on it.

The good news is that it’s free, at least for now. An Air China spokesman said they had tried the wifi internet on international flights but found it too expensive:

For the moment, our in-flight wifi intranet is free. We hope to give users a free or an even better inexpensive experience.

[Sina Tech]