 "Faster in-flight internet access over oceans soon to reach passengers")
Airline passengers pining for faster in-flight internet access anywhere in the world - even over the oceans - are about to get their wish as satellite operators find success where Boeing Co failed a decade ago.
Stronger, more-focused signals from spacecraft lofted by providers such as Intelsat SA will replace cobbled-together connections meant for mobile phones and television broadcasts. Costs will fall, too, eventually making onboard broadband a free amenity to win travellers' loyalty, industry executives say. The technology is poised to bring sweeping changes in airborne Wi-Fi, now marked by balky downloads, dead zones and scant public enthusiasm. ViaSat Inc, whose service will debut on JetBlue Airways Corp aircraft next month, promises more satellite-delivered bandwidth for each passenger than current market leader Gogo Inc can offer to an entire plane.
"Ten years ago, we used to use dial-up; nobody does that anymore," said Tim Mahoney, chief executive officer of the aerospace unit of Honeywell International Inc, a satellite-hardware supplier. "That evolution that we've gone through in our home setting is going to take place on the aircraft."
Inmarsat Plc, which will pipe its signal through Honeywell equipment, plans to girdle the globe with three spot-beam satellites launched by 2014. Intelsat expects its first Epic satellite in space in 2015. By then, JetBlue plans to have ViaSat's Wi-Fi on all its planes, airline CEO Dave Barger said this week.
In-flight internet is available on only about 40 per cent of the US and Canadian airline fleets, said Jim Breen, a Boston-based William Blair & Co analyst. Usage is even less: Satellite provider Global Eagle Entertainment Inc estimates that only about five per cent of fliers on internet-enabled planes pay to hop online.
Stronger, more-focused signals from spacecraft lofted by providers such as Intelsat SA will replace cobbled-together connections meant for mobile phones and television broadcasts. Costs will fall, too, eventually making onboard broadband a free amenity to win travellers' loyalty, industry executives say. The technology is poised to bring sweeping changes in airborne Wi-Fi, now marked by balky downloads, dead zones and scant public enthusiasm. ViaSat Inc, whose service will debut on JetBlue Airways Corp aircraft next month, promises more satellite-delivered bandwidth for each passenger than current market leader Gogo Inc can offer to an entire plane.
"Ten years ago, we used to use dial-up; nobody does that anymore," said Tim Mahoney, chief executive officer of the aerospace unit of Honeywell International Inc, a satellite-hardware supplier. "That evolution that we've gone through in our home setting is going to take place on the aircraft."
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So-called spot beams from the new satellites deliver a more-concentrated signal than those blanketing a region with TV images. There's enough bandwidth for scores of fliers to share, with moving jets handed seamlessly from one beam to another. It's akin to connecting a Starbucks Corp coffee shop full of Wi-Fi users - if the store were zipping through the stratosphere.
Inmarsat Plc, which will pipe its signal through Honeywell equipment, plans to girdle the globe with three spot-beam satellites launched by 2014. Intelsat expects its first Epic satellite in space in 2015. By then, JetBlue plans to have ViaSat's Wi-Fi on all its planes, airline CEO Dave Barger said this week.
In-flight internet is available on only about 40 per cent of the US and Canadian airline fleets, said Jim Breen, a Boston-based William Blair & Co analyst. Usage is even less: Satellite provider Global Eagle Entertainment Inc estimates that only about five per cent of fliers on internet-enabled planes pay to hop online.