Report: Connexion doesn’t add up

CIO Today http://www.cio-today.com/news/Airline-Wi-Fi-Remains-Rare/story.xhtml?story_id=022001P50AN2 says aerial Wi-Fi — like Boeing’s Connexion service — doesn’t make much sense, or cents, for many airlines.

Key Quote: “To the estimated $500,000 to $600,000 that it would cost to fit a plane with wireless technology, add the revenue lost in the two weeks that the installation would require the aircraft to remain on the ground. And the current systems are heavy, causing the planes to consume more fuel. With demand for the service estimated at 20 percent of all passengers, Wiseman and other industry analysts say it would be impossible for airlines to squeeze a profit out of onboard Wi-Fi …”

British magazine New Scientist recently had a reporter up on Boeing’s Connexion test plane http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn8117 to try out technology that will allow for cell phone calls from airplanes.

Key Quote: “On the test aircraft, Boeing issued standard GSM handsets. They worked perfectly well even when 12 miles out over the Irish Sea, way out of range of land-based phone masts. The cellphones were using a very low power onboard picocell base station. This meant the phones did not have to boost their own radiation to the maximum output in an attempt to contact a distant base station.”

However, the magazine noted that in previous interviews, it had found experts are sharply divided on whether to allow cell service in the sky.