Seventeen months ago, Alaska Airlines made an optimistic prediction. By the end of last year, the SeaTac-based airline would roll out airborne Internet service on at least some of its flights.
Alaska, along with Southwest Airlines, had become the first customers for a California company, Row 44, that promised lightweight and relatively inexpensive satellite Internet connections at 35,000 feet.
That prediction has yet to come true. Even test flights aboard Alaska and Southwest aircraft, originally scheduled for last spring, have yet to begin.
But both Row 44 and Alaska say the trials of the satellite-based Internet connectivity plan could begin any day now as aircraft become available for retrofitting during the less busy winter flying season.
John Guidon, Row 44’s chief executive and co-founder, said the delays have been more about regulatory issues than technical ones. The company needed both Federal Aviation Administration and Federal Communication Commission permission to get the system up and running.
Row 44 installs a small bump-like radome atop the aircraft to house the antenna that communicates with satellites. In addition, it installs electronic equipment inside the plane to distribute Wi-Fi Internet signals to passengers and crew members’ computers, personal digital assistants and cell phones.
Row 44 had nearly completed that installation aboard an Alaska aircraft after Thanksgiving, but uninstalled the equipment without testing it because the plane was needed for holiday service.
Business rivals filed objections to Row 44’s plans to use part of the electro-magnetic spectrum for its service contending Row 44’s equipment could hog the airwaves or cause interference with other systems.
Guidon says it views those objections as “insincere” and motivated more by business strategy than technical reality. He believes those issues will disappear soon.
While Row 44 was fighting regulatory battles, one of its rivals, AirCell’s GoGo system, began rolling out its service, albeit on limited flights for just a few carriers.
AirCell’s system uses dozens of ground-based towers much like a cell phone system. As the plane passes overhead, the signal is passed from one tower to another across the country.
While AirCell’s system performs on domestic flights, it doesn’t meet Alaska’s needs.
The airline needs to maintain connectivity even when its flights are passing over sparsely populated territory in Canada, Mexico and Alaska and when its planes are over the Pacific Ocean on the five-hour-plus flight to Hawaii from the Northwest, said Alaska spokeswoman Caroline Boren.
Guidon said Row 44 will have satellite coverage over the continental U.S. and Europe first and then expand it to include the Pacific once the land coverage is up and running smoothly.
Neither Alaska nor Row 44 has made a decision on what passengers will be charged for the service. Alaska has hinted that it has even considered free access for its most frequent fliers or its business class passengers though it has not yet made a decision.
Other airlines are charging $12.95 per trip for the AirCell service.
The airborne Internet business has had a rocky beginning. Boeing first introduced its satellite system eight years ago. Initially both domestic carriers and foreign airlines said they would equip whole fleets with Boeing’s Connexion service. But the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks prompted most of those airlines to cancel their orders because of declining traffic and dipping revenues. Boeing eventually sold the system to several foreign carriers including Lufthansa.
But the volume of business was not enough to sustain Boeing’s operation, and the company shut it down in 2006.
Row 44’s system, Guidon claimed, is superior to the Connexion system in several ways. The equipment weighs just a fifth of what the Boeing system did, cutting fuel costs and making the system suitable for the ubiquitous single-aisle planes that handle most domestic flights. The Row 44 system is less expensive to buy, he said, and installation time is a fraction of what Connexion required.
John Gillie: 253-597-8663
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