45.5 Mbps

Somewhere over America

4 February 2024

As I sat in the Delta flight from New York City to Fort Lauderdale I turned on the entertainment system and turned on the movie Star Wars.  It had been nearly 46 years since I first watched my favorite movie and I didn’t need to put on my headsets as I knew the dialog like the back of my hand.

Back then there was no way to watch the movie except in the movie theater unless you count the excerpts marketed on Super 8 film reels.  So, back to the theater I went at least a couple of times in 1977.  Then I replayed the movie as I lay on my living room floor listening to the soundtrack on the LP album.  No CDs yet, only cassette tapes and 8-track players were available to the public, and as it turns out, LP sound was really good.  

As I sat on that plane I tried the free WIFI connection and then tested its speed.  Wow!  45.5 Mbps was the download speed; as fast as my home connection in Naples Italy and nearly as fast as my home in New York.  I was able to surf the net as I glanced at the movie and enjoyed both experiences equally.  WIFI connections were through Wichita, Kansas via some orbiting satellite and eventually through the terrestrial network simply called the internet.  None of those technologies existed in 1977.

I am happy to spend a few minutes typing on a laptop that was just a dream 46 years ago and look forward to seeing what miracles appear in the near future.