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.
The only other challenge Row44 envisions is one of power.
Anybody who’s been on a plane before knows that the aircraft’s main cabin power turns on and off at least two or three times each flight—a reality that would force all of the hardware supporting these broadband connections to reboot repeatedly.
Guidon, the CEO, says the company is working on battery backups for the networking equipment that comply with Federal Aviation Administration regulations, as well as IP addressing technology to allow passengers to have the same kind of seamless connections they would find at on the hotspots at their local Starbucks.
“We need to make sure our systems can deal with these interruptions, come back from them seamlessly and consistently act like nothing has happened,” he says. “We’ll figure it out eventually, but in the meantime, the bottom line is this: flying is about to get a lot more productive, and that’s going to make a lot of business travelers very, very happy.”
Row 44
Everything BlackBerry with tips, news and reviews from our mobility expert Al Sacco.
