Wireless

British Airways will not extend in-flight mobile communication to any of its aircraft already in service, CEO Willie Walsh says.

The airline is planning to launch a mobile e-mail, Web browsing, and texting service from OnAir on two new Airbus A318 aircrafts in September.

However, it would cost the airline too much to fit similar systems to its current aircraft, Walsh said Wednesday at the Sita Air Transport IT Summit 2009 conference in Cannes, France.

(Credit: British Airways)

"We are not planning to retrofit the equipment to existing aircraft because we believe it will be too expensive," he said.

He added the airline currently has no plans to let travelers make mobile phone calls during its flights because its customers are not interested in such a service.

"The research we have done on voice tells us that the vast majority of customers do not want it," he said.

Sita, a company that specializes in airline IT and communication, said that its 2009 survey shows 70 percent of the 116 global aircraft carriers surveyed plan to introduce Wi-Fi and GSM/GPRS connectivity for short flights by 2012, and around 65 percent for long flights.

British Airways CIO Paul Coby predicted "exciting" new developments in in-flight passenger communications on new aircraft but warned it is essential for these communications to be "firewalled and separate from the cockpit."

He added that Sita is looking at how modern telecommunications capabilities could be used to automatically transmit and log flight data, such as that currently recorded on black box recorders, to airline databases.

"That is something we really want to be thinking seriously about with the new technology that is available," he said.

Nick Heath of Silicon.com reported from London.

(Credit: Virgin America)

Last November, when Virgin America debuted Gogo's Wi-Fi service on a single flight, it stated that by the second quarter of 2009, the service would be available fleet-wide. On Wednesday, it announced that it had reached its goal.

Virgin America has done that with GoGo Inflight Internet, enabling all Virgin America customers to experience Internet service at 37,000 feet.

The company demonstrated its Wi-Fi tech by hosting a Skype video chat conference with Oprah Winfrey during a live taping of her show. The segment is set to air Thursday, May 21. Unless you're a billionaire media personality, however, don't expect to be doing any video chatting yourself on flights. Virgin America doesn't typically allow voice over IP (VoIP) products like Skype due to concerns about keeping the cabin as quiet as possible.

The Gogo service is available for $12.95 for daytime flights of more than three hours, $9.95 for daytime flights of less than three hours, $5.95 on red-eye flights, and $7.95 for handheld devices.

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."

Porn on a plane? Not if you're flying Delta Air Lines.

(Credit: Delta Air Lines)

The airline, which plans to launch its in-flight Wi-Fi service later this year, has changed course on the controversial issue and now says it will block inappropriate Web sites from its Internet service, according to an article published Friday by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Previously, Delta said its flight attendants would handle situations on a case-by-case basis if passengers were viewing pornography in-flight. But now the airline says it's taking a different approach after receiving feedback from customers and flight attendants. The company is currently working with wireless provider Aircell to come up with a filter to block the inappropriate content, the newspaper said.

The question of what to do about porn-viewing passengers has been brewing for months. In September, American Airlines flight attendants and their union asked the airline to consider blocking or filtering traffic on its in-flight service. But American's management has resisted requests for putting any restrictions in place.

American Airlines and Delta are two of several airlines testing in-flight Wi-Fi. American has been offering the service on a limited basis since August 20 on some flights between New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, and between New York and Miami. Delta plans to have its entire domestic fleet of 330 aircraft outfitted with Wi-Fi by the middle of next year.

While Delta may be trying to appease the masses with its plan to filter traffic, that too is not without controversy. Earlier this year, the Denver International Airport took a lot flak for blocking access on its free Wi-Fi network to Web sites that officials deemed offensive. The filtering technology used there has been criticized for blocking nonporn sites such as Vanity Fair magazine and gossip site Perzhilton.com.

A Delta representative tried to reassure the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the technology it plans to use would "limited in scope."

I understand that people don't want to be subjected to unpleasant images on their neighbor's laptop while en route. Believe me, I'd be annoyed too if someone next to me was surfing for porn on a long trip. But the fact is that it's difficult to limit or filter access to the Internet when you're asking people to pay for the service, especially when that filtering traffic may block some very legitimate sites. The Aircell service costs $9.95 on flights of three hours or less, and $12.95 on flights of more than three hours.

What's more, I'm not sure that porn on planes is really a major problem. People have certainly had access to racy magazines and DVDs for years, and in all my years of flying I've never once sat next to someone who even pulled out a Playboy magazine.

My gut feeling is that most people would be too embarrassed to call up their favorite porn sites while sitting elbow to elbow with other people. Of course, there could be that one in a million guy who can't make it from New York City to San Francisco without checking his favorite site. But filtering everyone else's traffic just to prevent this rare instance seems like overkill.

Certainly, there are lots of people who get drunk on flights. And I'm not a big fan of sitting next to someone who smells like a brewery and pukes in the little baggy they put in the seatback. But you don't see airlines banning booze. Right?

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.