Ah, fantastic news strikes again. From this article:
“The system has been configured to allocate 128 IPs, with 124 IPs for passenger use. However, due to the number of passengers (115) utilising multiple devices (some as high as 2-3 devices) on the plane, more than 3 times the allowed connections were constantly requesting access to the internet,” explained WirelessG CEO Carel van der Merwe.
Now, some quick searching indicates that they’re using tech from Row 44 to do this thing. If it’s just satellite downlink, then I quite don’t get the R3.5 million (~$436k USD given a quick check of the current ZAR/USD) pricetag. If it’s the whole shebang, then I guess Row 44 is making some damn nice licensing fees out of airlines on DHCP leases.
Either way, I find it pretty damn hilarious that they didn’t plan for something like this on a flight for tech journos.