Japan Airlines System (JAL) and Boeing have signed a
deal to install Connexion by Boeing in-flight internet system into
some JAL aircraft from next year.
The deal with JAL, one of Japan's two major airlines and the
first Asian carrier to make a firm deal to install the system,
should see the service become available on routes between Japan and
London from December 2004. After that the service is expected to be
expanded to other routes between Japan and Europe and Japan and the
Americas.
The Connexion by Boeing service provides passengers a broadband
internet connection via satellite. Users can connect using their
own notebook computers or PDAs via either Ethernet ports in seats
or a wireless Lan on the aircraft.
Transmission speeds of the service vary with conditions but can
be as fast as 20Mbps, said Scott Carson, president of Connexion by
Boeing.
At least one-quarter of the bandwidth (5Mbps) is given over to
passenger data needs with another quarter devoted to carriage of
television broadcasts, a quarter for airline use and the final
quarter as a buffer to provide extra bandwidth to the other
applications when needed, he said. The upstream channel off the
aircraft is 1Mbps.
"Connexion by Boeing gives [passengers] a lot of choice about
how they spend that time [on board], whether it be listening to
music, surfing the internet, communicating through instant message
or e-mail or, if they are part of a corporate structure, going
through the firewall and accessing their network," he said.
The system puts no restrictions on applications that can be run
- it is a selling point of the service that users can run the same
applications they normally do from their desk or home - although
there is the ability to shut off or restrict users if they become
"bandwidth hogs", Carson said.
Carson said he expected the service to cost between $15 and $17
for a three-to five-hour flight and between $25 and $30 on a
long-haul flight for more than seven hours of access.
The company will also court corporate account customers,
although it admits that it needs to become more widely available
before many will sign on. For the service to be profitable the
company needs business travelers, many of whom carry notebook
computers, to log on while in the air.
"Our model says what we would like to see at maturity is 20% of
the cabin using it, so on a Boeing 747 that's 60 to 70 people,"
said Carson.
"In our demonstrations, up to 120 people were using it, so the
numbers look promising early on," he added, referring to trial runs
earlier this year by British Airways and Lufthansa.
Carson said the company is also looking at the corporate jet
market and reached an agreement last month under which Rockwell
Collins will install and manage Connexion by Boeing systems on
business jets.
Secondary markets such as maritime are also being eyed by the
company as it begins to roll out commercial service and look for
users to populate the system.
Carson said system trials had shown wireless Lan use on board
the aircraft posed no problems to aircraft systems and that it is
absolutely safe to use in flight.
Martyn Williams writes for IDG News Service