In-flight connectivity is improving rapidly as multiple companies work to improve the products on offer. New patent applications may slow that progress. Should we be concerned that the intellectual property battles will derail the current pace of innovation? Or is the IP protection a necessary part of the innovation process?
in-flight internet
JetBlue goes binary with latest special livery
A fun and geeked-out new tail joined the JetBlue fleet this week. The “Connected to Blue” plane sports a slew of ones and zeroes celebrating the bits and bytes which make their new FlyFi in-flight internet service work. They even spelled part of the plane name in binary.
JetBlue A321s now certified for FlyFi, LiveTV
Be on the lookout for Fly-Fi internet service and in-seat TVs on JetBlue‘s A321 planes coming soon. The carrier is expected to announce later this afternoon announced Thursday that they have received certification from the FAA to install the hardware on their newest aircraft type. This will allow the carrier to retrofit the first few A321s […]
AT&T plans in-flight internet service
Want faster in-flight internet? AT&T may be the solution to your needs as the carrier announced this week plans to have 4G/LTE-based systems on board aircraft by the end of 2015. The company will, in essence, leverage their massive ground-based coverage footprint and bandwidth capacity to serve up connectivity in the sky. Additional antennae will […]
What if we could track all the planes in the sky for free??
Back when MH370 went missing I shared my (somewhat unpopular) view that tracking all planes all the time was probably not worth the cost, certainly not for full “black box” dumps. I do understand that the cost for very simple position/speed data would be much less expensive to transmit and process, but there’s still a […]
Two bumps, one hump: Gogo’s 2Ku aims for fastest global connectivity solution
Evolution in the global in-flight wifi market took another step forward this week with Gogo‘s 2Ku platform. Based on similar technology as the GTO system announced last September, the Gogo 2Ku system promises download speeds up to 70Mbit on the plane using the super-thin antenna from Thinkom. Gogo expects to have the system in trials […]
Join me at Aircraft Interiors Expo 2014
Want to know what you can expect to find on board airplanes in the coming years? Head to Aircraft Interiors Expo, the world’s largest trade show for aircraft interiors, where vendors and airlines meet to shop, show off new toys and otherwise explore the next generation of seats, galleys, in-flight entertainment systems, in-flight connectivity and […]
A few interesting year-end numbers from Gogo
Gogo released their year-end numbers this week and with them their annual 10-K SEC filing. While I find most of the content of those filings pretty boring I also usually seem to find one or two nuggets of interesting news in there. This time around that interesting bit comes in the form of some details […]
LiveTV sold to Thales: A shift in the IFEC market
The old adage “content is king” may be shifting slightly. In the in-flight entertainment market increasingly “connectivity is king.” For the providers of the IFE systems having a strong connectivity component to their offerings is key to growing their business or even just maintaining the existing customer base. In-flight entertainment and connectivity vendor Thales made […]
In-flight wifi at a price not worth paying
Total flight time was 94 minutes. It was 10+ minutes after departure before the satellite sync’d up and it was even possible to pay. And I knew we’d have to shut down 15-20 minutes prior to landing. So basically $7/hour for service which might be decent. Oh, and trying to use the UA site for […]