FA4UA From United States, joined Nov 2003, 801 posts, RR: 18 Posted (2 years 8 months 4 weeks 15 hours ago) and read 4054 times:
A few little birdies have been chirping about XM satellite radio being added to United's Fleet. Initial rumors stating 100 channels of music domestically and 50 channels internationally.
I wouldn't think it would work anywhere but over North America, but time will tell.
I would imagine XM will help cover part of the cost and write it off as marketing. Nice to have access to a captive audience of 200,000 people a day to show off your product!
I've heard that the 737 fleet will be first! Expect a formal announcement soon! As for now it's just a very LOUD rumor.
FA4UA
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FA4UA From United States, joined Nov 2003, 801 posts, RR: 18 Reply 7, posted (2 years 8 months 4 weeks 14 hours ago) and read 3992 times:
Quoting Gigneil (Reply 6): XM's satellites are geostationary. There will be no coverage internationally beyond Tijuana, Juarez, Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver at best.
As an XM subscriber myself, that's what I thought.
I also hope we keep channel 9! Passengers really do love it and loosing it would be a pity!
FA4UA
I'm seeing stars: STAR Alliance, STARwood, and STARbucks!!
Wjcandee From United States, joined Jun 2000, 3304 posts, RR: 13 Reply 9, posted (2 years 8 months 4 weeks 14 hours ago) and read 3958 times:
Fact is, there's no reason while channel 9 couldn't be included in the system. UA would just have to insist that it be incorporated. Heck, in your CAR, you have a tuner that has AM, FM, CD and XM.
IADBGO From United States, joined Dec 2004, 206 posts, RR: 0 Reply 10, posted (2 years 8 months 4 weeks 14 hours ago) and read 3956 times:
While a signal from the satellites are limited to the US and a few places in Canada and Mexico...I believe it would be possible to broadcast it directly to aircraft from ground stations. I don't how this works...but I assume it is similar to the ground repeaters that are setup in cities across the US.
AirportPlan From United States, joined Jan 2004, 379 posts, RR: 3 Reply 11, posted (2 years 8 months 4 weeks 14 hours ago) and read 3949 times:
No one said anything about Channel 9 going away. One of the main advantages of adding XM is that UA can eliminate the cost of updating audio media monthly on hundreds of aircraft.
N1120A From France, joined Dec 2003, 22559 posts, RR: 78 Reply 14, posted (2 years 8 months 4 weeks 14 hours ago) and read 3904 times:
Quoting HPLASOps (Reply 13): New guy here - don't get the channel 9 reference - what is UA's channel 9?
The audio program on Channel 9 is, at captain's discretion, "From the Flight Deck" which is basically a tap into the aircraft's ATC radio feed so you can listen to what the cockpit hears on your flight.
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HPLASOps From , joined today!, posts, RR: Reply 15, posted (2 years 8 months 4 weeks 14 hours ago) and read 3890 times:
Quoting N1120A (Reply 14): The audio program on Channel 9 is, at captain's discretion, "From the Flight Deck" which is basically a tap into the aircraft's ATC radio feed so you can listen to what the cockpit hears on your flight.
Interesting - not sure how many pax outside of a.netters would actually care to hear ATC chatter - example: recently my friend and I were going LAS-MSP and the capt came on about 5 min after takeoff, saying "Folks, are brakes are running a little hot and so we're gonna leave the landing down for a few more minutes until it cools." And my friend looked at me and said "That's not really something I wanna hear! Do you what you gotta to do fly the plane but I really didn't need to know that!"
MarshalN From Hong Kong, joined Sep 2005, 1520 posts, RR: 1 Reply 18, posted (2 years 8 months 4 weeks 13 hours ago) and read 3819 times:
Quoting HPLASOps (Reply 15): Interesting - not sure how many pax outside of a.netters would actually care to hear ATC chatter - example: recently my friend and I were going LAS-MSP and the capt came on about 5 min after takeoff, saying "Folks, are brakes are running a little hot and so we're gonna leave the landing down for a few more minutes until it cools." And my friend looked at me and said "That's not really something I wanna hear! Do you what you gotta to do fly the plane but I really didn't need to know that!"
Actually, there are people who do like it. I sat next to an Aussie on a recent flight and he loves Ch9, and listens to it whenever he flies UA. I don't think he's much of an aviation hobbyist beyond that
RoseFlyer From United States, joined Feb 2004, 5163 posts, RR: 16 Reply 19, posted (2 years 8 months 4 weeks 13 hours ago) and read 3807 times:
Sounds like a great addition. The narrowbody fleet could all have XM satellite radio, and the widebody fleet could have PTVs. It would give UA the best IFE among the legacy US carriers.
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N1120A From France, joined Dec 2003, 22559 posts, RR: 78 Reply 20, posted (2 years 8 months 4 weeks 13 hours ago) and read 3791 times:
As far as the Wifi thing goes, are they going to keep trying to make it prohibitively expensive or are they going to try and keep it competitive like LH's FlyNet/Connexion service is?
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