Those who need their Internet fix while in flight should appreciate a report released on Wednesday by market researcher In-Stat.
The number of commercial airplanes providing broadband access is expected to jump from 25 in 2008 to 800 by end the of 2009, according to the report.
Broadband connectivity is brought to airplanes either through satellite or an air-to-ground network. Both technologies are battling for market share, with Aircell's service based on its own air-to-ground network, and Row44 and Panasonic's service satellite-based.
In-flight broadband has struggled to gain a foothold due to the weak economy and the availability of in-flight entertainment. Other obstacles have included the cost of the service and equipment, difficulty getting regulatory approval for external antennas, and the weight of the equipment adding to fuel costs, In-Stat analyst Daryl Schoolar said in a statement.
But with service and equipment costs down, in-flight broadband providers plan to work with airlines to ramp up service, according to In-Stat. Several U.S. carriers, including American, Delta, and Southwest, are on board to deploy high-speed Internet service on their planes.
(Credit:
In-Stat)
In-flight broadband access is expected to generate $47 million in 2009, according to the report, with a projected annual revenue of $1 billion by 2012. The increased revenue will be split among all the players in the value chain, Schoolar said in the statement. "Airlines, service providers, and even hot-spot aggregators will get some of that revenue."
Virgin America is teaming up with YouTube for its big coming-out party for its Wi-Fi in the sky service.
The California-based airline will launch its Gogo Inflight Internet service on November 22 in a flight over San Francisco. To show off how robust the in-flight Internet service is, the company is planning to stream a live video feed from the plane down to the ground to an audience attending the YouTube Live concert in San Francisco.
(Credit:
Virgin America)
The Gogo service will be available to all passengers on a single Wi-Fi enabled plane starting November 24. And by the second quarter of 2009, the company expects to offer Wi-Fi on its entire fleet of planes.
As part of the YouTube live video feed demonstration, 30 Rock's Keith Powell will be part of the show. He'll be filming a segment in-flight for his Web mini-series with co-star Katrina Bowden. After the flight, guests will then go to the YouTube Live event.
CNET Reviews editor Kent German and CNET TV correspondent Kara Tsuboi are planning to be on hand for the event, so check out their blog posts and video of the event. It should be cool.
Virgin America isn't the only U.S. airline to launch in-flight Wi-Fi. American Airlines debuted its in-flight Internet access service in August on 15 of its 767-200 airplanes. Delta Air Lines has said that it will outfit its planes by the middle of next year with Wi-Fi.
American and Delta area also using the Gogo service from Aircell. The cost of the Gogo service is $9.95 on flights of three hours or less, and $12.95 on flights of more than three hours.
Other airlines, such as JetBlue Airways, has been testing its Wi-Fi service on routes between San Francisco and New York. Southwest Airlines and Alaska Airlines are also testing in-flight Wi-Fi. And others such as United Airlines are considering offering Wi-Fi, but it hasn't announced tests or a commercial launch.
American Airlines will be offering Wi-Fi on 15 of its 767-200 airplanes that fly cross country.
(Credit: American Airlines)American Airlines passengers will now have Wi-Fi access on some flights.
The airline said Wednesday that it has finally launched its in-flight Internet access service via Wi-Fi on 15 of its 767-200 airplanes. The service, called Gogo, will be offered on nonstop flights between New York and San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles, and New York and Miami. The cost is $12.95 per flight. Passengers will be able to sign up when they boot up their browsers.
The airline will be restricting the use of voice over IP services, such as Skype, and it will still restrict the use of cell phones in flight.
Gogo is a service offered by Aircell, which is also providing Wi-Fi access to Delta Air Lines planes. Earlier this month, Delta said it was outfitting all of its domestic fleet with Wi-Fi by the middle of next year. Virgin America, which is also using Aircell's Gogo service, will launch its service by the end of the year, the company has said.
And JetBlue Airways is testing its Wi-Fi access on routes between San Francisco and New York. Southwest Airlines and Alaska Airlines are also testing in-flight Wi-Fi. And others such as United Airlines are considering offering Wi-Fi, but it hasn't announced tests or a commercial launch.
Aircell's pricing is uniform across all the airlines that use it. The company charges $9.95 for flights of three hours or less. And it's $12.95 for all flights over three hours. Initially, American Airlines will only be offering Wi-Fi on coast-to-coast flights.
Delta Air Lines passengers will get Wi-Fi access on all domestic flights by the middle of next year, the company said Tuesday.
Several other airlines, including American Airlines, Virgin America and JetBlue, have announced similar in-flight Wi-Fi plans, but Delta's roll-out is among the most aggressive plans announced.
Delta Air Lines will begin offering Wi-Fi throughout its domestic fleet by mid-2009.
(Credit: Delta )Specifically, the Atlanta-based airline plans to outfit its domestic fleet of 330 aircraft with Wi-Fi, which amounts to around 60 percent of Delta's seats flown every day. The service won't be available aboard Delta's smaller aircraft, which typically seat 50 to 75 people.
The wireless service, which will allow people to connect to the Internet via Wi-Fi-enabled laptops, PDAs, or smartphones, will cost $9.95 on flights of three hours or less, and $12.95 on flights of more than three hours. The airline is partnering with Aircell, which also supplies in-flight Wi-Fi technology to other carriers, such as American Airlines and Virgin America.
Virgin America has said it will offer the Aircell Gogo service in the fall. And like Delta, it is already planning a massive roll-out. It hopes to have its entire fleet Wi-Fi-enabled by April 2009.
But other airlines are still testing the in-flight service and haven't yet announced plans for massive deployment. JetBlue has been testing a free Wi-Fi service since December on one plane that flies between New York City and San Francisco.
American Airlines, which announced its service more than a year ago, is currently testing the service. It expects to offer Wi-Fi on only 15 planes that fly its transcontinental routes later this year.
US Airways said it will offer Wi-Fi service on a trial basis on one Airbus aircraft in the fall. And Southwest Airlines is using a satellite-based service from Row44 to provide Internet access on four planes on a trial basis.
Other major airlines--including Northwest Airlines, United Airlines, and AirTran Airways--have not announced plans to offer in-flight Wi-Fi, according to the Associated Press.
Airlines have been talking about offering in-flight broadband for years. But so far the service hasn't really caught on. Boeing first offered the service called Connexion, which debuted in 2004 on a few international carriers including Lufthansa, SAS, All Nippon Airways, Japan Airlines, and Singapore Airlines.
Boeing canceled the service in 2006 when the company was unable to find business among domestic airlines. A big problem with Connexion was that the entire system was bulky and weighed around 400 pounds, making it nearly impossible for it to be used on smaller domestic planes.
The Aircell Wi-Fi technology is much easier and cheaper to deploy. But with fuel prices at all-time highs, it's difficult to say whether airlines will find wireless broadband services lucrative enough to spend the necessary capital to upgrade their plans with routers and power outlets for passengers.
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