Boeing network will let passengers get online at 35,000 feet
Monday, July 31, 2000
By JAMES WALLACE
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
LONDON -- Imagine the next time you fly on a commercial jetliner you could ...
Plug your laptop into your seat and send or receive e-mail, surf the Web, connect to your
company's intranet or just sit back and watch live television programs on CNN, ESPN or CNBC at
35,000 feet.
Or maybe you would rather do some online shopping, check on a connecting flight or make a
dinner reservation for that night in the city you are flying to.
These are just some of the Internet and entertainment services that will soon be available to air
travelers with The Boeing Co.'s so-called Connection communications network for airlines.
The system will be available not just to business and first-class passengers, but to those back in
economy as well. And it won't cost an arm and a leg, as in-flight phone calls do now.
Boeing expects to begin its high-speed Connection service in the fourth quarter of 2001 for U.S.
domestic flights, with ongoing regional rollouts through 2005. Boeing is talking to about 20
domestic and foreign carriers about putting the system in their planes.
"We are getting a lot of interest," Kenneth Medlin, vice president and general manager of
Connection, said last week in an interview at the Farnborough International air show.
"They didn't believe it would happen so soon," he said. "They thought it was three or four years
away."
Hundreds of companies showed off their products in the exhibition halls at the show. Connection
by Boeing was one of the most popular.
Visitors to the Boeing exhibit could plop down in an airline seat and, using a laptop connected to
each seat, check out the various services offered by Connection.
Just as the system will work on an airplane, the demonstration used satellites for Internet
connection.
Bob Simek, one of the Boeing employees who was showing Connection to visitors, said a
Continental Airlines executive stopped by the demonstration every morning during the weeklong
show to spend about 15 minutes checking his e-mail and connecting to the airline's intranet.
"He told us he had to have this system on his airplanes," Simek said.
Boeing announced Connection in April, teaming with units of Loral Space & Communications,
Japan's Mitsubishi group and Italy's Finmeccanica to create an in-flight communications venture.
Loral's Skynet has 10 satellites covering North and South America, Europe and parts of Asia.
The airborne communications market could produce more than $50 billion in revenue over the next
decade, according to some estimates, and other players besides Boeing are aggressively marketing
their satellite-based communication systems to airlines.
Cathay Pacific earlier this year said it had signed an agreement with a unit of Primex Technologies
of St. Petersburg, Fla., to provide a system that would allow passengers to connect to the Internet
with their laptops.
Last month, Globalstar Telecommunications and Qualcomm joined a venture led by News Corp. to
provide in-flight e-mail and Internet connection services to airline passengers.
Smaller companies are also anxious to tap into this new market. A Florida company called
inflightonline.com that bills itself as the world's first provider of in-flight Internet and intranet
services just opened an office in Bellevue and hired away one of Boeing's public relations people.
That office will allow better access to airline customers who come to Seattle to take delivery of their
planes, said David Bruner, president of inflightonline.com.
In an interview, Boeing Chairman Phil Condit said he believes Connection has a leg up on the
competition because it will have significantly more bandwidth -- the volume of information that
flows through the communications pipeline -- than the competition.
"We have a big pipeline," Condit said.
The Boeing system will be able to receive data through that pipeline at 5 megabits per second. Data
can be transmitted from the plane at the rate of 1.5 megabits per second, or about the same as an
office T-1 line.
Medlin, the Connection vice president, said Boeing also has an advantage because of its intimate
knowledge of customers (airlines), airplanes and regulatory agencies that must approve
communication licenses.
The centerpiece of Connection is a phased array antenna that was initially developed by Boeing in
1986. It has been used on corporate business jets for several years.
The phased array antenna locks on a satellite by steering its signals electronically. There are no
moving parts. Competing systems will use antennas that move mechanically to stay connected with
a satellite.
Connection will work like this:
When you hook up your laptop to the airplane seat, Connection will identify what kind of computer
and operating system you are using and ask if you want to download the appropriate Connection
software.
Once connected, you can chose from a menu that includes Internet services, news and information,
live television, company intranet, carrier information, e-commerce, flight facts and destination
information. As part of the Internet service, instant messaging and chat rooms will be available.
Connecting to an intranet will be more complicated. Because company intranets have protective
firewalls, agreements must be worked out in advance between Boeing and a company so an
employee can access his or her intranet using Connection.
Up to four live television channels -- one of them free -- will be offered as part of Connection.
Channel content will depend on whether the flight is in Europe, Asia or North America. For North
America, Boeing has negotiated an agreement with CNN and is in talks with ESPN and CNBC. In
Europe, Boeing has negotiated an agreement with Eurosport and is negotiating with Euronews.
Condit said he believes the live TV feature will be especially welcomed by air travelers. Though
airlines offer television news today on their flights, it is often several hours or even a day old.
"It will be a lot more exciting to watch live as Tiger Woods plays the final four holes of the British
Open than seeing it two days later on a news show," Condit said.
Passengers will use credit cards to pay Connection charges. They will type the credit card
information into the system when they sign on. Connection will remember the card number so
passengers don't have to retype the number the next time they fly.
Condit said Connection charges are likely to be around $17.50 per hour. In-flight phone calls today
run about $120 an hour.
"
P-I reporter James Wallace can be reached at 206-448-8040 |
