WiFi on Southwest, Alaska Airlines Flights Set to Take Off
The airlines are working with startup wireless networking vendor Row44 to offer high-bandwidth connectivity via satellite this summer on commercial passenger flights.
CIO — Somewhere over Nebraska, 32,000 feet above a cornfield the length of ten football fields, it hits you: you neglected to send your system administrator a critical e-mail before your plane left the runway.
No network connection, and lots of frustration. Soon, however, thanks to one upstart vendor and at least two eager commercial airline carriers, connecting to the Internet in mid-air will be as easy as it is at your neighborhood Starbucks.
The vendor, named Row44, is at the center of a renewed effort to bring pay-per-use, hotspot-style broadband WiFi connectivity to airline passengers.
John Guidon, the company’s CEO and co-founder, says the technology is an innovation whose time has arrived; a service that takes advantage of existing infrastructure to provide a valuable resource to passengers who’ve wanted it for years.
“We always knew that at some point this would have to be a reality,” says Guidon, who helped start the company in 2003. “That reality now is finally here.”
As of last month, Row44’s plan was to pilot its technology on select domestic flights with Alaska Airlines and Southwest Airlines starting this summer. Connection speeds likely will vary, but Guidon said most flights usually will offer a minimum of 30 megabits per second. The price: as low as $9.95 per flight.
Mike Masnick, CEO of Techdirt, a corporate intelligence and high-tech consulting company in Sunnyvale, Calif., said this connectivity option could revolutionize the way passengers work when they fly.
“Especially for long-haul flights, I think this will become a necessity for most business travelers,” he said.
Masnick added that he would use the service “in a heartbeat,” noting that “It would allow me to get real work done while flying” and that “without other distractions, I might be even get more done than I would in the office.”
Row44 certainly isn’t the first vendor to dip its toe in the mid-air Wi-Fi market. Earlier this decade, in 2004, Boeing partnered with Lufthansa and a number of other airlines to offer a similar service—dubbed Connexion by Boeing—on many flights.
The infrastructure for this system used a phased array antenna or mechanically steered Ku-band antenna on each aircraft, leased satellite transponders, and ground stations to distribute the signal. By 2006, however, Boeing pulled the plug, citing the lack of a viable market.
According to Guidon, the Row44 system is sleeker, more reliable and easier to manage.
For more on wireless networking, see Deciding When to Upgrade to 802.11n and An Introduction to Wireless.
