| January, 2009 |  |
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Delta to offer in-flight Internet on East Coast shuttle flights
Delta Air Lines will be the latest domestic airline to offer in-flight Internet for passengers, launching paid
Wi-Fi service on Tuesday on its East Coast shuttle flights. The Atlanta-based airline will initially introduce
GoGo, an Internet service operated by Aircell, on five MD-88s flying the New York LaGuardia-Boston
Logan and New York LaGuardia-Washington Reagan routes. A Boeing 757-200 is also equipped with
GoGo. Passengers on the shuttle flights can expect about 40 minutes of Internet surfing time, says
Chris Babb, a Delta product manager. The carrier plans to add "a plane every two or three days" with the
goal of equipping its entire mainline domestic fleet by the end of next year, Babb says. The service will
cost $9.95 for flights less than three hours and $12.95 for longer flights. As a promotion, Delta's new
service will be free for the first two weeks.
RadioShack to sell $100 netbook
We've seen a recent wave of the new small and light laptops known as netbooks, produced by the likes of
HP, Asus and others. Starting Sunday, RadioShack will sell the 2.44-pound Acer Aspire, one mini-laptop
at the awfully aggressive price of $100, provided you also sign up for a two-year AT&T DataConnect
mobile broadband plan. The lightweight machine includes integrated 3G wireless. The Acer also has an
8.9-inch screen, built-in Web cam and 160 GB hard drive. It uses Intel's energy-efficient Atom processor.
One recent indication of netbook popularity comes out of the UK. According to Hitwise Client Intelligence,
the netbook category accounts for 1 out of every 7 computer searches over there.
Get Ready for the ARRL Triple Play WAS Award
As of January 1, 2009, the ARRL will offer another award: The Triple Play Worked All States Award.
This new, exciting award is available to all amateurs who confirm contacts with each of the 50 states
using three modes for each state: CW, phone and RTTY/digital. All 150 contacts must be made on or
after the starting date and must be confirmed via Logbook of the World (LoTW). All bands -- with the
exception of 60 meters -- may be used in pursuit of the Triple Play Award.
Study: Google uses 21 times more bandwidth than it pays for
Some of us burn up more of the Internet's bandwidth than others. Take Google. The search giant
consumes far more of the Internet's traffic lanes than it actually pays for. That's the conclusion of a
provocative study released by tech industry analyst Scott Cleland. In fact, the analysis shows Google is
by far the largest user of Internet bandwidth, and that Google's bandwidth use is orders of magnitude
greater than its payments for its cost. Cleland is president of Precursor, a leading tech research firm,
and was named an Institutional Investor Magazine top independent telecom analyst in 2004 and 2005.
Here's what he found:
-- Google is by far the largest user of Internet bandwidth, generating 16.5% of all U.S. consumer
Internet traffic in 2008; Google's share will grow to 25% in 2009 and 37% in 2010.
-- Google in 2008 has paid approximately $344 million toward the operating cost of the part of the
Internet used by U.S. consumers using its services; but =that's $6.9 billion short of what it costs to
supply the bandwidth burned up by Google's highly profitable operations.
Cleland's 27-page study lays out an extensive argument why Google rightly should cover more of the
cost. "The core conclusion of the study is that any sustainable national broadband policy must ensure
that the heaviest Internet users pay their fair share of Internet infrastructure costs," Cleland says. "It is
neither economically rational nor equitable for the biggest users of, and beneficiaries from, shared
resources to not share fairly in the recovery of costs."
| January, 2009 | |
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