Robert Poe on September 25, 2007

It may have occurred to you at some point that the lack of in-flight wifi makes no sense. An airplane would be the obvious place for wireless Internet access. It's cut off from the world, and it's harder to leave than a coffee shop. Passengers' choice of activities is limited: reading, watching and perhaps writing. People pay more during a flight than they would elsewhere for just about everything, including stale snacks and the use of cheap plastic headphones. Surely they would pay enough to support wifi as well

Such realities make it doubly puzzling that one such pioneering effort shut down in August 2006, when The Boeing Company pulled the plug on its satellite-based Connexion by Boeing service. But new players are trying to prove that Boeing was wrong and you were right about potential demand for the service. A notable new entrant is AirCell LLC, which recently signed American Airlines Inc. and Virgin America as its first customers. Another is Southern California-based startup Row 44 Inc., which has just signed Alaska Airlines.

Unlike AirCell, Row 44 employs satellite rather than cellular-based technology. Using space segments provided by Hughes Network Systems LLC, it will deliver a 30 Mbps Internet link to the plane and 1.6 Mbps from it. It also includes a second one-way 45 Mbps channel to the plane for carrying IPTV. Row 44 president Greg Fialcowitz said the service promises to provide at least 100 Kbps of bandwidth to every seat in an airliner, speeds significantly higher than that of AirCell's service. He added that it can deliver both Internet and IPTV streams via in-cabin wifi.

Row 44's choice of technology might seem risky, given that Connexion's use of pricey satellite transponders was one of its problems. But the new company has avoided many of its predecessor's mistakes. Its equipment weighs 150 pounds rather than Connexion's 800 to 1,000 pounds. Aerodynamic drag caused by the "radome" covering the antenna adds the equivalent of only an extra 56 pounds, according to Fialcowitz. Total equipment cost per plane, including installation, is $150,000 to $200,000. That's slightly more than AirCell but a lot less than Connexion, which ran closer to $1 million. Multiplied by hundreds of planes, that's a crucial difference.

Fialcowitz claims the cost per bit delivered to the aircraft is the least expensive of any such service. As a result, the cost for passengers could end up even lower than that of AirCell. Fialcowitz said a PDA or smartphone user will pay $5.99, and a laptop user $7.99, for wifi access on a domestic U.S. flight. AirCell projects its prices in the $10 range. On international flights, Row 44 customers will pay $11.99 for PDAs or smartphones and $15.99 for laptops; AirCell won't provide international service. Connexion, which focused on international routes, charged $14.95 on short flights and $29.95 on long ones.

While Row 44 will share the revenues of such "point of sale" service with the airline, it will offer other payment options as well. For example, airlines can choose to pay a small fee per revenue passenger. They can then provide the service free to all passengers, or offer it free to some and charge others for it, keeping the resulting revenues.

Row 44 believes that both leisure and business travelers will be interested in its offering. Its studies have convinced Row 44 that leisure travelers will often prefer surfing the Internet to watching in-flight entertainment. It also believes that the service will be popular on short-haul flights, with business commuters using the wifi service to finish last-minute work before they arrive.

Like AirCell, Row 44 has built its business model around high volumes and low prices and thus is avoiding exclusive deals with airlines that would limit takeup. It plans to hold off on offering IPTV service until the system is widely available and offers enough potential viewers to support advertising-based free viewing.

Row 44 will begin North American service, stretching from northern Alaska to Central America and the Bahamas, in the first quarter of 2008, based on the simple calculation that more than one-third of all commercial aviation takes place in North America. It expects to sign several more airlines before the launch date. Its next target will be Europe in Q3, with a trans-Atlantic "bridge" operational by Q4.

From there, it's up to the airlines where the service will expand, including to Asia, Australia and the Middle East. Ultimately, of course, that means it's up to the passengers. But if they're like you, they probably won't be wondering whether they want in-flight wifi. They'll be wondering why it took so long.