[Satellite News 04-06-11] The in-flight connectivity market is experiencing a significant growth phase as international airlines intensify their search for viable, satellite-based solutions to provide passenger connectivity.
    To capitalize on this environment, ViaSat and JetBlue Airways finalized the agreement the two companies entered into in September to deploy a Ka-band commercial aviation broadband network using ViaSat-1. Through its JetBlue partner, ViaSat also will see its services adopted by one of its target airlines, as JetBlue subsidiary LiveTV signed a letter of intent March 22 with Continental Airlines to provide the via Ka-band ViaSat Ka-band service.
    JetBlue CCO Robin Hayes and LiveTV CTO Jeff Frisco spoke with Satellite News about the plans for the new ViaSat offering, which will culminate with a service launch in the second or third quarter of 2012.

Satellite News: Why are airlines expressing renewed confidence in satellite in-flight connectivity services?

Hayes: We were waiting for Ka-band price points and performance to come along. Previously, you had the options of a ground-to-air network or Ku-band satellite alternative, but take rates were very low for both. We looked at both alternatives, and we felt it wasn’t the right time to jump on board in terms of performance or costs. We were also concerned with the number of free Wi-Fi service customers who were reporting that they were unable to get a connection.

Frisco: We have always believed that people wanted to be connected, but we also have always questioned whether they wanted to pay the high prices to be connected in a sufficient number to make a business out of it. We were waiting for a technology that would allow that cost and structure opportunity to come so that we could introduce a product that would allow an airline to bundle services and attract large quantities of customers.

Satellite News: What impact does ViaSat have on the cost of in-flight connectivity?

Frisco: There are various technology approaches to capitalizing on in-flight service. There is the air-to-ground approach and the satellite approach. The air-to-ground approach requires you to put a lot of capital into the ground network. To make money, you have to hope that your available capacity matches up with the number of equipped aircraft. The satellite model is based on putting a larger amount of capital on the aircraft, so you can build one aircraft at a time. ViaSat’s Ka-band satellite offers a big breakthrough for us because the cost of the data rate of the satellite portion has been substantially changed. The cost is now much lower for the satellite solution. It has made it a clear winner. The satellite covers the whole country and gives you a lot of help in congestion areas, which can be a problem for air-to-ground solutions. It also has a much lower cost compared to Ku-band solutions. Ultimately, if you look at the amount of bandwidth that a Ka-band satellite has to allocate to services compared to a Ku-band FSS satellite, it is more than a hundred to one in terms of costs. It is a tremendous improvement.

Satellite News: Have you decided on a pricing strategy ahead of launch?

Hayes: That is something we are still working on. What I would say is that we are able to have complete freedom to price the service how we want. We could offer it free, or we could offer incentives to paying customers. I think it is exciting to have that freedom. We could tailor it to certain customers. For example, we could offer packages to customers who use the service a lot or include it in the fare they have paid. A customer should not have to pay more than they do for a ground-based alternative today.

Satellite News: How long does it take to equip an aircraft?

Frisco: It currently takes about three to five days to install a TV system on an aircraft. We expect the Ka-band system to take less time than that. Three days should be adequate, but we are looking at ways we can do it in one day. The important thing is to be in synch with the airlines as there is a lot of other work being done on their aircraft. JetBlue has a lot of other ideas in terms of products and technologies they want to install and we might be part of that opportunity.
 

Satellite News: Will this system be able to cope with every passenger accessing the Internet at the same time?

Frisco: We are basically designing the service so we can provide a good service to the full 150 passengers on board. We want to have an environment where everyone is equal, and we want to provide a service to make people interested. The satellite technology can do that.

Satellite News: How is your in-flight service rollout plan developing?

Frisco: The basic plan is to get certification on JetBlue’s two different aircraft types, and get production for another type of aircraft in the same timeframe. We then want to test the aircraft on the order of one to two months and then go into production. Production is more about the airline’s ability and willingness to bring aircraft down and get the work done. It is about the aircraft being available during the various seasons

Satellite News: Will you use this broadband system for other applications?

Hayes: I think Internet access is where most customers will spend their time. We also have the opportunity to work with content partners and have special offers for customers. We have lots of ideas for other opportunities to use the system for aircraft and crewmember applications. The handheld devices on our aircraft today are all Wi-Fi enabled so they could be used to relay information or send data during the flight. If a flight is running late and customers see that they could miss their connecting flights, customers can go on the JetBlue.com website themselves and change their booking. That is going to provide a lot peace of mind. Down the line, you will probably see a number of cockpit applications in terms of getting data from the aircraft down to the ground.

Frisco: The big challenge is what people are doing today, not what they are doing tomorrow. For example, the one application that everybody thought would be the most important was VPN for e-mailers. It still remains important, but it is not the only way in which people want to use the Internet. People want to use it for a lot of other reasons.