United puts the kibosh on in-flight video chat, one family seriously 'bummed'
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted March 12th 2010 12:17PM
posted March 12th 2010 12:17PM
It may not be illegal to tuck your kids into bed via iChat while taking advantage of United's in-flight WiFi, but that didn't stop a flight attendant from ending John Battelle's (admittedly precious) use of the service during a flight two days ago. It seems that the airline has a policy that prohibits "two-way devices" from communicating with the ground -- you know, in case some terrorists board the plane and try some shenanigans. Apparently a laptop with WiFi isn't considered a "two-way device," until you throw videoconferencing apps like Skype into the mix. Somehow, it seems, the company missed Apple iChat when blocking ports, thus enabling the whole affair. Let this be a lesson to those of you with children: save the chats for the hotel room or the airport lobby, eh?
Umm, the last time I flew, there were these things called telephones built into each seat ...
@Mikerman That's why it's blocked, at least that was my initial guess. They can make about the same off of you in 5-10 mins of a phone call as they can for a wifi subscription on a flight, hence they will not be able to charge you more for a lower quality of service going forward unless they block this.
So they can block the individual video chatting programs, but what about just being on a browser and chatting through gchat or something?
I been lucky to been able to use in flight wifi for free with go go on my last few flights...its addictive i wouldnt pay 15 bucks for a 3 hour flight thoe...this makes no sence like they cant just email instructions... i think there being cheap on the bills like always
So only video chat is the problem? Because terrorists couldn't possibly use IM instead to their advantage. Or email. Or some Web chatroom. All of which could be happening over port 80, which the airline can't realistically block and still claim to offer Wifi without a ginormous asterisk and/or huge backlash from legitimate customers.
skype probably used up too much bandwidth, they should limit the bandwidth for each device better instead.
The airplane nerd inside me can't help but complain about this
Why did you have to photoshop that onto a northwest plane? This is an article about united, and northwest doesn't exist anymore. There are some redtails still flying around, but all of the 747s (and yes, I can tell that's a 747 tail) have already gotten the delta repaints.
I'm sorry, sometimes I just can't help myself.
All internet activity is "two-way". I send a request to a web server and the web server sends me back a web page.
But really, how is this improving security? I can do IM, but I can't voice chat? Is that really preventing the coordination of an attack? I can run a jabber server on any port I want.
They must be blocking these services for other reasons and just using security as an excuse. My guess is that they think having someone talking during the entire flight would be annoying to their seat mate.
So would emailing count too?
Why are people allowed to talk on planes anyway?
Just shut the hell up.
Do you hear that? Here's a thread where no one has called anyone else a name, or downgraded anyone into oblivion. Is this still the internet?
hmmm meebo has video chat.
This is discriminatory against those that want to sign to their loved ones or make business calls by sign language via video chats. Using the terrorism defense angle is getting ridiculous!!!
@Deaf
I never thought of that. Will they block TDY as well?
Good. I was sitting next to this guy and his kid was a whiny little bastard. All read me another story daddy. Go get a job kid.
What about those ridiculously expensive 'airphones' with credit card swipes???
@TRLKOR they took those out long ago to save weight. havent seen them in years
while i certainly think the security argument doesnt hold much weight, i think they should tell him not to video chat with his kid because it's annoying. being on a plane is one of the only places where you can disconnect for a little bit, and the last thing i want to hear is some inconsiderate jerk talking to his kid via iChat. the screaming baby in 27E is bad enough.
Given that Mr. Battelle works in the industry, he should know better. He should know the terms and conditions of GoGo, and he's just pissed because he finally got caught.
@gitismatt I was on a United flight from Tampa to Chicago about 6 months ago and they still had the air phones in the planes
@gitismatt I was on a United flight from Tampa to Chicago about 6 months ago and they still had the air phones.
So are instant communication protocols blocked? Seems sort of arbitrary to limit it to video and audio. I can communicate pretty quickly via email or text chat.
I've never heard of tunneling through encrypted ports.
Wonder how smart this is given that it may be the only way that someone could setup a Skype call during a hijacking.
It's this kind of stupidity that gets people miffed at big companies and their "policies", they don't allow a front line employee, a sterwardess in this case, make an inteligent decision of allowing a parent, obviously NOT a terrorist, time to chat with his/her child..
As already pointed out, things like e-mail etc.. are probably allowed, but they are two way...
That is just another fear and/or appearance of "caring" stupid company...
Oh no, please don't block my Skype port that I can change at will. Please don't.......
Are you able to use instant messengers that work through browsers like e-messenger and such? Sounds like a pointless rule to me.
WTF is Kibosh?
Well... haven't airlines been offering two way communication via phone for years?! XD? So wtf like?! XD
Even if the calls were monitored, it's not as if the terrorists couldn't develop their own special code or something. Hrmmm....