The press have been covering in-flight broadband trials by Aircell for some time now. They even managed to get Walt Mossberg on a flight to test the service. But in-flight broadband is not new, and the service being offered here is (on paper) quite similar to something that was launched back in 2004; Boeing Connexion.

The Boeing system was first put into service on a Lufthansa flight on May 17th 2004. Services included Wi-Fi Internet access, streaming video to the in-flight entertainment system as well as streaming video to laptops.

Connexion ceased operation In August 2006 due to a lack of commitments from major US operators. The Connexion network still exists, but is only being offered to the US government and has been renamed the “Boeing Broadband Satellite Network”.

So, why could Aircell succeed where Connexion failed?

Ground stations

The Boeing system was available almost anywhere in the world thanks to a bunch of satellites and ground stations. Stuff like that is extremely expensive to operate. The Aircell Gogo service only works on flights over the US, and utilizes a ground-to-plane network, which is much cheaper to operate. Aircell Gogo covers the entire US with just 80 towers.

Latency

The other big disadvantage of satellite Internet is latency; latency is the delay your data packets encounter between your PC and the Internet. A satellite based system routes your little packets from your PC, to a satellite dish on the plane, up to a satellite, down to a ground station, to the Internet. By the time your packets arrive on the Internet, they have traveled almost 75,000 miles though space.

The Aircell system goes directly from the plane to the ground station, skipping the massive gap between the plane and a satellite. A lower latency means everything just works smoother, and that the technology has the future potential for applications like VOIP (Gogo blocks VOIP applications at the moment).

Airline investments

Airlines wishing to install the Connexion system had to invest half a million Dollars per plane, which is incredibly hard to justify, plus the return on that investment is horrible. The Aircell system costs $100k to install, and only weighs 100 pounds. Installation is as “simple” as installing a small antenna on the bottom of the plane. The Boeing system required a large surfboard size antenna, and over 1000 pounds of equipment. With today’s fuel prices, carrying over 1000 pounds of extra equipment is just asking too much. When Connexion by Boeing shut down, only 1000 passengers a day were using the system, and Boeing had lost over 320 million Dollars.

Passenger pricing

The Boeing system was also priced too high for passengers; access started at $10 for an hour, up to $30 for the entire flight. Aircell plans are just $9.95 for short flights (up to 3 hours) and just $12.95 for anything over 3 hours. That price point is perfect for the kind of service.

The market

Finally; even though the Boeing service only ceased operation 2 years ago, people are more connected than ever. The Aircell system is marketed much better, it simply looks and feels like something anyone could use. There is support for Wi-Fi enabled Blackberry devices and the iPhone. Back in 2006 only a very small number of PDA’s had Wi-Fi access, nowadays it is found in almost every smartphone or PDA. Being able to access email on your PDA is much more convenient than having to open your laptop in-flight.

I’m quite excited about the plans of Aircell, and by getting American Airlines and Virgin America on board, their chances of survival are huge. If they can offer a reliable and affordable speedy data service to air passengers, then they have a very bright future ahead of them.